Spirit Sword
by Jasenerd
Summary: A different Archer and Shirou die to Alaya's Counter Guardians. Zelretch sees the almost impossible deeds that caused this and decides to reward them with a chance at a new life. As such, Shirou enters into Rias Gremory's peerage as her knight piece. Yet Shirou was changed and now is struggling to understand his distortion to hopefully serve Rias properly.
1. Chapter 1

Spirit Sword

Chapter 1: A Return to Life

_I own nothing beyond this crazy idea and the laptop I write it on._

**Author's Note: I am re uploading this, making it slightly slower and with what I feel to be better characterization. I broke my leg and am on pain medication, so please point out any error I make so that I can fix them. Like I said earlier, this is a Heaven's Feel Shirou that made a significantly different choice that changed the entire route of the war and his personal growth. This isn't 100% my best work, but it give me something to do to pass the time until surgery.**

**Edit 17/10/2014: Apparently I wasn't clear enough above, but this is a self made bad route for Heaven's Feel. This is not the good or normal ending, but one were Shirou choose Sakura, but managed to fail in saving her. **

* * *

The world was wrong. The sky was filled with many steel gears, the burnt grass on the hills showing millions of blades in every direction. The air was filled with a fog that blocked the view as far as twenty feet. On top of a small hill, there was two people. The first was a tall man that was muscular and tanned, with white hair. He was wearing black, skin tight armour, with a red over coat that had a large section over his midsection missing.

The other person was a younger man with normal jeans with a long sleeved shirt that had a white torso section with blue sleeves. He was much less tanned when compared to the white haired man, but he possessed the same muscle mass that granted him tremendous strength. His red hair contrasted deeply to the white of the other.

Both men had steel coloured eyes that were completely identical. The red haired man looked at his surroundings and noticed how the fog was beginning to wipe out the strange world. "Looks like your dieing too," the red haired man said, a sad smile on his face.

"Don't worry about that so much Shirou, I should have already died. Be grateful that you managed you dream and saved me from being a beast for Alaya." The white haired man place his hand on Shirou's shoulder.

"I guess I did save you, but really the costs were far to great." Shirou looked at the disappearing land as their joint life began fading away.

"Shirou, nobody could have know that Alaya would deploy Counter Guardians as soon as you freed me." The white haired man looked up at the sky of his own inner world. The only reason Shirou could even access this was due to the fusion of their souls.

"Archer, this is our end. We fought well, but even the two of us combined could stop Alaya from ending us."

"Shirou, you don't understand. We could never stop anyone. We are just swords."

"And as swords we possess no killing intent." Shirou replied, remembering the first thing that Archer taught him after they had fussed together.

"Exactly. That's why you could dream to save everyone, because without that killing intent you felt no hate or anger, even towards yourself." Archer said. "Look at your left hand. See the steel command sigils? Those mark you as one worthy to fight for the Holy Grail. That has to mean something to you."

"Why are you comforting me? Until now you were nothing but sarcastic and cynical."

"I guess it's because I am finally free. Achieving a goal you fought a long time for gives you this feeling of relief and renewal." Archer explained.

"I guess that makes sense. Do you think anyone survived?" Shirou asked, looking at the fog that was now only a few feet away.

"Shirou, when the Counter Guardians broke your dream, you picked up the pieces and reforged them into something greater, stronger. Don't tell me your going back to your old ways." Archer reprimanded.

"It was just idle curiosity. I think Alaya was only targeting me because I stole one of the Counter Guardians away from it. It was afraid that I would remove the only way it could defend itself fully." Shirou said.

"Probably, but not quiet as emotional as you describe it. Alaya isn't a true sentient force. It is almost robotic in a way. It saw a threat that couldn't be stopped by normal counter force and sent the Guardians."

The fog engulfed the duo, before the light disappeared. The swords stuck in the ground disappeared from the worlds, as if they never existed. The grand gears in the sky stopped their eternal working as they slowly began cracking. Slowly pieces of the giant gears fell from the sky and imbedded themselves in the ground. The sky turned black and the world shattered into a million pieces as it was no longer tied to the life of Archer.

* * *

Zelretch was a being that was incredibly difficult to understand. He did enjoy spending time with morally righteous people and always rewarded good work and repaid his favours. At the moment, Zelretch was looking at the dead body of one Emiya Shirou. Shirou was a good man that had actually done what he believed to be impossible and preform some derivative of the third magic to alter his own soul.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that unlimited universe would eventually create one that would produce weird results, but unless one could use true magic to travel between alternate realities, then no one would ever discover this. Thankfully Zelretch was one of these individuals. Zelretch knew that the boy would not be able to live any human life, but maybe in an alternate universe he could exist as a different species.

Zelretch could have hand picked were he would send the body, but sometimes it funnier to just have vague ideas and see where he would end up. As it happened, the first reality he landed in had a person who could bring back the dead as a devil. The only thing Zelretch would have to do would be leave the resources to reincarnate Shirou along with Shirou's body, and he would be done.

* * *

Issei had very conflicted thoughts during that days classes. He had been given back his life, but as a devil. Issei wasn't incredibly religious, but even he felt apprehensive about being a devil. On the other hand, he was dead and now alive. That wasn't even mentioning the fact that we apparently a servant to the most attractive girl in his school, who was also a devil.

Issei was highly perverted, a fact that everyone in his school knew. That made it hard for him to gain female friends, even of the 'just friends' kind. It hurt that he may never have a true girlfriend. Perhaps that is why the fact he was serving under such a beautiful woman had hit him so hard. Despite all this, the fear that he would become a soulless monster was still present in the back of his mind.

Issei hardly noticed when the end of school came. He only took notice when another person appeared before him. It was a blond, handsome boy with a friendly smile. He was Yuuto Kiba, the 'most handsome' man in the school. Issei harboured little anger for the man personally, but it made it hard for the pervert to see another man have so much female attention.

"Buchou sent me to retrieve you. Are you ready to go?" Kiba asked.

"Sure" The two left the room and began leaving the school. Around them the mostly female students began gossiping about Issei's perverted ways corrupting their 'knight' Kiba. Until the previous year, the school had been a girls only school, only recently having become co-ed. That was the main reason that Issei had joined the school.

The duo left the main school building, walking along the path to the older school building. Until recently, Issei felt the building was an odd relic of the past, nothing more. But now he could feel the sense of belonging coming from the building. Outside the doors were Rias Gremory, red haired beauty that followed English naming habits, Himejima Akeno, a Japanese beauty with long black hair and a generous bust, and the school mascot Toujou Koneko. Unlike the other two, Koneko was small and lithe, having absolutely no bust of hips of any sort.

Rias greeted her newest servant devil, "Hello Issei-kun. Should we go up to the club room now?"

"S-sure" Issei replied, before following the group to the second story room. The others officially introduced themselves, but a startled shout from Rias stopped that. The group rushed ahead and they all gasped at what they saw. On the desk in the room was a corpse. It appeared to have been a red haired teen before it was repeatedly stabbed, burnt and crushed. The only other feature that could still be recognized was the three steel marks on the left hand that came together to form a sword.

The room also had two couches and a coffee table in between. On the coffee table their was a purple knight piece from chess and a single piece of paper with the words _'Use this' _under it. Rias strode over to the piece a picked it up, before feeling a shock pass through her. This piece wasn't any old chess piece, it was the evil piece that devils used to bring dead humans back to life as servant devils, among other uses.

"W-w-why is there a dead body here?" Issei asked.

"I don't know, but someone wants us to bring him back to life as a devil." Rias said.

Akeno walked up beside her buchou and asked a question, "Are you going to bring him back with that?"

"It is a mutation piece, so he must be powerful. But we know nothing about him." Rias said.

"Smells like steel." Koneko said, waking up to the corpse. "And light. He was killed by a holy weapon." The elder devils among the group froze at that. The man was human but angels or fallen angels had killed him for some reason.

"Well, he definitely wont betray us for the angels or fallen angels.."Kiba said, looking over the body.

"Buchou, what is that chess piece?" Issei asked

"It is an evil piece. They can bring humans back to life as a devil under the service of the devil that brought them back. Each piece is given a value and give unique skills to the reincarnated devil." Rias began, but Akeno soon took over.

"This piece is a mutation piece, which is much more powerful and rare. Some people would give an arm and a leg for a single mutation pawn to add to their collection, but here Buchou was given one for free and all that was asked is to bring another person to life."

"Will you do it? It would give you another great soldier for when we eventually fight in rating games." Kiba asked, lifted the arm of the corpse and staring at the odd steel mark.

"I don't know, it's a risk because we don't know anything about him." Rias said. Akeno leaned in and said something that the others didn't quite hear, but when she finished Rias was much stiffer and looking at the corpse uncertainly.

"Well, not to be harsh, but this is an extra piece. Could you just use it and if he is someone you don't want in you group just trade him off to another group or something?" Issei asked.

"That, well I could, but it just doesn't feel right." Rias said.

"Remember, our group may need the firepower in the future." Akeno said, patting Rias on the back.

"Do it" the normally quiet Koneko said, looking at Rias with expressive eyes. Rias saw something in those eyes that moved her. It was often said that eyes were windows into the soul, and it looked like Koneko truly believed in this.

"Everyone deserves a second chances, just like you gave us Buchou." Kiba said, smiling softly.

Rias finally made her decision and strode forward to the corpse on the desk. However, as soon as Rias entered three feet of the corpse, the mutation knight flew from her hand and landed in the middle of the corpse and glowed. Suddenly the piece disappeared and the man was healed. The devils here shocked to say the least.

"Is this not supposed to happen?" Issei asked.

"Normally I would have to do a ritual, but apparently, the person who gave us the mutation knight did the ritual, leaving only the devil part unfinished. If I had to guess, our benefactor wasn't a devil and thus couldn't bring him back to life with this ritual." Rias said, looking over the man. It appeared the man wasn't much older than her, and was quite dashing if she had to say.

"How are we going to introduce him to his new life?" Akeno asked, looking over the newest devil among them.

"He is clearly a fighter, that is apparent now. That means he probably knows he died." Kiba said.

"How about we just be completely blunt?" Rias asked rhetorically. The man on the desk began to groan as he reentered the world of the living. His steel coloured eyes were strange, but to a group of devils, it seems rather mundane.

"I'm alive?" The man asked, looked at the ceiling before raising his left and looking at the odd mark on the back of it.

"Yes, you are. I am Rias Gremory and I have reincarnated you as a devil." Rias said, offering a hand to the man. The man seemed to consider the hand briefly before staring at Rias for a good minute or so. The silence in the air was deafening as the Gremory Peerage felt the man size them all up.

The man eventually took Rias' hand and used it to bring himself up on his feet. He looked over himself and found himself lacking in injuries. He looked at Rias again and spoke, "Thank you. I am Emiya Shirou, in your debt."

"My, such a polite young man." Akeno said.

"So, we found your dead body. How did that happen?" Kiba asked, raising a single eyebrow.

"I broke a rule trying to save a life." The gathered devils nodded in respect as they found another kindred soul. Perhaps he was foolish, but at least he sounded like a good person.

"Really? I thought that kind of thing would make the news?" Issei said.

"Ever heard of a city called Fuyuki?" Shirou asked.

"No."

"Then it probably doesn't exist anymore because of what I did." Shirou said, not showing any regret.

"You don't regret it?" Rias asked, shocked.

"If you are asking for regret or sorrow, then you wont get it. I saved a life. It's a shame that so much destruction happened because of it, but I simply saved a life." Shirou said.

"That's awful harsh. You did cause all this destruction, apparently" Rias said.

"I tried to stop it when I realized what happened, but I was unable too." Shirou said.

"You were left here by someone to be brought back to life. Do you know who that could be?" Kiba asked.

"Umm... I think most the people I was friends with are dead... Unless. Did you see who did it?" Shirou mumbled.

"No"

"It may have been Zelretch, since he like rewarding people for doing 'great things' which could be anything depending on the mood he's in." Shirou said. "Although, if it was him, then this is probably a parallel universe. Doesn't matter to me since I had nothing left for me back to my old home anymore."

"Wait, parallel universe?" Rias asked.

"Trust me when I say it more of a headache then it's really worth." Shirou said, shuddering. The silence that followed was awkward until Rias broke it.

"Well, let me introduce your fellow devils." Rias said. "Hyoudou Issei just joined yesterday."

"Nice to meet you, Shirou."

"Likewise."

"The blonde is Yuuto Kiba, my knight."

"Greetings."

"Much Obliged."Shirou replied.

"This is Toujou Koneko, my lovely rook." Rias said.

"Hello." Koneko said.

"Hey."

"And this is my unbeatable queen, Himejima Akeno."

"My, what a nice young man you are." Akeno said.

"I aim to please Akeno-san." Shirou said. Akeno simply chuckled.

"And you are my newest knight Shirou-kun. I hope you will come and find you life with us enjoyable. You are now a member of my peerage, which means I am responsible for you and your action. All I ask is that you preform your demonic duties for us and help us fight if the need comes up." Rias said, earning nods from Akeno, Kiba and Koneko.

"Fair price for saving the life of a stranger I would think." Shirou replied, being completely polite.

"Excellent. Now I suppose I should teach the two of you what jobs you will be doing." Rias said, motioning for Issei to come forward. "Tonight the two of you will go into the town, using this device," At this point Rias brought a round object from her pocket. "This well help you locate people that are inclined to use devil wishes and form contracts. You will leave leaflets that hold our summoning circle on it so that they can summon us."

"Wait- We aren't stealing their souls are we?" Shirou asked.

"Calm down, it's just physical goods that we normally take as payment. I'll go into that when you begin making your own contracts." Rias explained, handing the circular object to Issei.

"Well, shall we head out Issei-san?" Shirou asked. Issei nodded briefly, heading out ahead of Shirou. Shirou gave a small wave as the duo left the room.

"Well he is pleasant, I'll give him that much" Rias said.

"We should learn more about him. You really only asked vague questions." Akeno said.

"We learnt that he was a good person. I know he wasn't lying about what he said. If he is a good person, then the specifics can come later." Rias said.

"I sense a good spirit within." Koneko said.

* * *

Issei and Shirou were walking back to the club house after finishing handing out the fliers. Shirou had set a brutal speed that was causing Issei to be close to falling over in exhaustion. Shirou heard a large gasp and turned. Once Shirou saw the condition that Issei was in, he put an arm under his shoulder and held him up.

"If I was going too fast for you, you should have said something." Shirou said.

"How were -ha- moving that -ha- fast?" Issei said, gasping for breath.

"I didn't realize that you wouldn't be used to this kind of pace. Living across millions of battlefields forces people to move quickly." Shirou explain.

"You're a soldier?"

"Something of the sort." Shirou said, subtly pulling on his magical circuits to create prana from his od and the mana of the world. Once Shirou had access to the prana, he began using it to reinforce Issei's lungs and heart. Issei began to recover much quicker as his organs were operating more efficiently.

"You know -ha- your not half bad. I though handsome men were all evil, -ha- but you are the nicest person I ever met." Issei said.

"What?"

"Oh, my dream is to be harem king, but all you damn -ha- handsome men are taking all the women just by existing!" Issei ranted.

"Um, well it's good to have dreams." Shirou said, shaking his head.

"Do you -ha- not believe in the greatest dream of a harem!" Issei shouted, before falling into a rant about harems and breast. Shirou was both surprised and afraid of the perversion shown by Issei. Even Shinji hadn't been this bad! Well before the Holy Grail War.

Issei managed to get on his own feet by the time they reached the club house. The duo walked up to the main room and opened the door. The only person still in the room was Rias, working at the desk on what appeared to be paperwork.

"Buchou we're back!" Issei shouted, startling Rias from her work.

"Oh, that was much quicker than I expected." Rias said.

"Shirou-san moves so fast that it was a pain to keep up" Issei said, causing Shirou to look sheepish and look away from his master and his fellow servant.

"That is to be expected since I forgot to tell him the physical benefits of becoming a devil. Might as well explain it to him now." Rias said, looking at Shirou. "Issei if you want you can return to your home for the night. You did a good job." Issei nodded to Rias and waved good bye as he left the room, face still red of the exertion.

"So I get additional benefits aside from a new life?" Shirou asked as he moved to the tea cart and prepared two cups of tea.

"Yeah, every devils is nocturnal to some amount. During the night your senses, strength, speed, and cunning will be much greater than during the day. Beyond that, becoming a devil naturally increasing certain attributes." Rias explained.

"So what did I gain for becoming a devil?" Shirou asked, bring a cup of tea to his master and sitting on the couch and drinking from his own cup.

"Thanks. I brought you back as a knight. As a knight you get slight increases in everything, but it is your speed and sword skills that really get increased the most." Rias explained, before taking a deep gulp of the tea that Shirou had prepared. Rias raised an eye brow when Shirou broke into loud laughter at her explanation.

"Of course, a sword would get the ability to use swords." Shirou said, earning an odd look from Rias. "My magical element in human magecraft was 'swords' meaning that I could only use sword magic."

"Interesting. Say, do you have a place to stay tonight?" Rias asked.

"I can find a place on my own, but thank you. I'm going out, I'll try to make it here tomorrow evening. However, I need to do something important first, so if I am late don't wait up." Rias was going to say something, but before she could, Shirou disappeared and landed on the ground outside.

Shirou smiled as he felt the speed he could now use. He ran all night, revelling in the feeling of pure speed and life the night gave him. This was much better than using magic, mainly due to the feeling of genuine life that it extruded. He only stopped at the crack of dawn to rest. He was deep into the hilly woodlands south of the city. Shirou found a large branch high up in a tree and use it to lay against the trunk.

Once Shirou was sure he wouldn't fall off, he entered the world that only he and Archer could access. The sun burnt his skin, but he ignored it to embrace Archer's reality marble and enter it. He felt his mind slipping in a manner similar to sleep, but not quiet the same. When Shirou opened his eyes, he was once again in a world that was wrong.

Unlike Archer's usual reality marble, this one was different. The sky showed it to be midnight with a full moon, but the sky had long cracks running all over it. Much like a mirror that was shattered. The ground was formed of a sparse grass. The swords that were scattered all over the place were formed of stone. Although he could still feel the magical potential of each, the accumulated history and the skills of crafting, the swords were now stone.

Sitting cross legged in front of Shirou was Archer. Archer looked completely normal, but for the stone sword the grew up beside him. It was a sword that wasn't a sword. It resembled an arrow instead of what should have been a sword. Archer was a sword, he couldn't have arrows in his reality marble.

Archer opened up and looked Shirou in the eyes and spoke, "Welcome your own reality marble Shirou."


	2. Chapter 2

Spirit Sword

Chapter 2: Projected Strength

_I own nothing beyond this crazy idea and the laptop I write it on._

**Author's Note: Still on pain medication! That means that I will make mistakes! It is a pretty strong Narcotic!**

I believe that Unlimited Blade Works does the majority of the work towards allowing Shirou/Archer to recreate Noble Phantasms. It is reflected down bellow. Should I be wrong, then in this story, that is how Unlimited Blade Works works. Also, I think people misunderstand when I said that it was Heaven's Feel Shirou with changes. That Means that Shirou never choose Sakura over his dreams! Also people have been really nice with their reviews, so shout out to all of them. I hope you enjoy and review.

* * *

"What?" Shirou asked.

"This is your reality marble." Archer replied, standing up. Archer reached down and pulled out the sword that was an arrow. Once the stone artifact touched Archer's skin, it gain the colour it should have. The red and black blade fit the image of Archer suitably.

"I thought I used your reality marble because I didn't have one of my own." Shirou said, looking around at what was apparently his own inner world. He felt like he belonged here, as a lord over the lands.

"That changed when we died. You were always distorted, and the constant projection of my own reality marble was enough to cause this reality marble to manifest." Archer explained, walking pointlessly around the endless world. Shirou quickly followed. "It evolved to account for my existence, but never was more powerful than my reality marble. When we were brought back to life your reality marble manifested first because you're the dominant spirit."

"Oh. Wait, so your a part of my reality marble?" Shirou asked.

"Yeah, that got me too. This reality marble doesn't copy blades. I can't tell immediately what it can do, but it considers me to be the 'spirit of the projectile sword' so it probably has to do with the spirit of your blades." Archer said.

"So, you are a part of this reality marble. It treats you as a blade spirit that 'turns swords into projectiles'. That means I can't use your reality marble to trace anymore." Shirou mumbled. "But Gaia is much weaker in this world, so maybe that will balance out losing Unlimited Blade Works."

"Gaia's weaker?"

"Yeah, you couldn't tell?"

"No, I can't see into the outer world from here. I can't even see your memories anymore." Archer said, leading Shirou over another hill.

"Odd. Well, as I was saying in this new world Gaia is much weaker, so magecraft probably wont be opposed as much here." Shirou explained, following Archer.

"Well only our normal magecraft, like reinforcement and tracing. Reality Marbles are always difficult to use, no matter which universe your in." Archer said.

"Really? That makes sense I guess, because the entire reality is being replaced." Shirou said.

"Now you need to look at this." Archer said, stopping at a ridge. Shirou jogged up to his position and gasped at what he saw. The ground suddenly dropped almost 100 metres, with a large red monument at the bottom. It took a second for Shirou to recognize the purple, pulsating monument as a knight piece from chess.

"Now, do you know why we have a giant chess piece here?" Archer asked.

"I wouldn't know for sure, but Rias said she brought me back as her knight. This is a knight piece. I can't imagine that would be a coincidence." Shirou said.

"That's odd. A servant system that uses chess pieces?" Archer guessed.

"She said I was a member of her 'peerage'. That we was responsible for my actions and that I had to serve her in combat and such." Shirou explained.

"So a servant system. Do you know if it was Zelretch that brought us here?" Archer asked.

"I should think so. With the weaker Gaia and the species of devils, I can imagine this is our world." Shirou said.

"Makes sense I suppose. Hey remember that project we were working on a while back?" Archer asked.

"Er, no?"

"Of course you don't. We were trying to project and trace a body for me to use and fight along side you. It didn't work because my reality marble was a part of your soul, and beyond that Gaia and Alaya fought too hard against the creation of another body for me."

"I thought we both agreed that was impossible." Shirou said.

"But a lot has changed since then. First, when you were brought back, our collective magical circuits were perfectly synced to each other, making them more efficient. Second, you aren't using my reality marble anymore, and beyond that I am a natural part of your reality marble." Archer explained, using a condescending tone of voice. "Third, Gaia is apparently much weaker in this new world. Finally, I was never brought to this world before."

"Alright, I understood the first three points and why they would effect my projection of you, but why does you never being in this world have any effect?" Shirou asked.

"As expected of a third rate magus." Archer sighed. "Gaia would remember me being sent here as a beast of Alaya, because it would be prepared to use a beast of Gaia to save itself. Since it doesn't remember me as a Counter Guardian, it wont prepare to use a beast of Gaia."

"That makes sense, and hey! You are the exact same magus as me!" Shirou shouted.

"HA! I had centuries to train in using our limited amount of magic." Archer boasted.

"Yet I still am better then you."

"Only because you have access to my magical circuits and memories." The pair stared at each other before breaking into laughter.

"I can't believe that the naive kid grew up to be you." Archer said, smiling softly.

"I wasn't that bad."

"I saw the other possible ways you could have turned out, so trust me when I saw you were." Archer said.

"Those are alternate universes, you don't know that I had the same personality as them." Shirou said. The silence stayed for a minute before Archer spoke again.

"Seriously, we are going to have to train you to use this new reality marble."

"I think it would be better to find out what I can already do before moving on to adding a new reality marble onto the list." Shirou said.

"Fair enough."

Shirou left soon after that, drifting off into true sleep. When Shirou woke up, it was noon. The sun shining down directly onto him didn't hurt, but he could feel the lack of his previous energy and strength during the night. Shirou climbed down from the tree he had slept in and stretched out his body. Given that the sun was sapping his energy, Shirou still felt slightly stronger and much faster than when he was human.

Shirou took a slow walk towards the town he had been revived in. He deeply enjoyed the sound of wild life the pervaded the area. When Shirou eventually reached town, he began scouting the city out. Hopefully if Zelretch really was responsible for him being stuck here, then all the normal conventions of his home world should be the same. Sadly this wasn't an alternate Fuyuki city.

After spending most of the afternoon walking around, Shirou left for the club house he was revived in. School would be letting out soon as Shirou heard the five minute warning bells. Shirou was the first person to enter the room. Seeing the amount of formula circles, Shirou attempted to decipher them. While neither he, nor Archer, were masters of runes, they knew the basics.

The runes that were on the floor were beyond his understanding. Before he could consult Archer's opinion, the doors opened. Shirou turned around to see his master and his fellow devils. He bowed at the waist.

"Welcome back master." Shirou said, earning giggles from Akeno.

"Shirou? I didn't think you would come back. You just disappeared last night." Rias said.

"I serve you with my life master." Shirou said. He straightened and left the room. "I will prepare tea. Just wait a moment." Shirou could hear surprise sputtering as he went down the hall to the kitchen area. Shirou saw Issei enter the building and gave a short wave. Issei returned the wave and entered the main room.

Shirou found the kitchen by using his structural grasping magecraft. It was a simple thing, but more than enough to prepare tea or small meals. Shirou put on some water to boil. Shirou began preparing simple sandwiches for the gathered devils. However, instead of using the mundane knives he used his tracing to recreate the knives he used in his old home.

Shirou hummed softly as he fell into the comfortable routine of preparing food. During the last stand against the Counter Guardians, it wasn't something he could enjoy often. He felt the lack of resistance against his tracings, but without Unlimited Blade Works it was a much more costly task. Thankfully, it seemed that Shirou was right in saying his tracing would remain at about the same level without the reality marble to aid him.

Shirou finished his meagre preparations and loaded them on the tea cart that he found in the kitchen. The whole process took him about ten minutes, most of which was just him tracing whichever blade that caught his fancy in the kitchen while the water was warming up. Shirou finally took the water with him and placed a few tea leaves in the pot.

The room was quiet when he entered. It appeared as if Rias was instructing Issei as to his duties that evening. From what Shirou could understand, it seemed that he and Issei were going to split up and continue handing out these summoning fliers that they had the previous night. Issei was shouting something about being the best pawn and harems. Really, Shirou shouldn't be surprised by how perverted the devil was.

"Shirou, I need to talk with you. No disappearing this time, understand?" Rias said, sitting down on the desk at the front of the room.

"Alright. Would you like some tea?" Shirou offered, holding up a cup of steaming herbal tea.

"Thanks, I appreciate it. What do you think your position is among us?" Rias said bluntly.

"That of a servant and knight. You said I was brought back to serve, and fight for, you." Shirou said, offering a cup of his tea to Kiba. Kiba accepted the cup with a small smile.

"Shirou, when I brought you back, I brought to back to life as a member of my peerage." Rias began. At this point the only ones without a cup of tea were Shirou and Issei. Not that Shirou would let that last long.

"And as such I literally owe you my life. Even if I didn't, I don't mind helping you guys out with the fliers." Shirou explained, taking a sip of tea.

"Oh my, such a generous young man. Why would you willingly give up so much of your time?" Akeno asked.

"Do I need a reason to help people?" Shirou countered.

"Not really, but it is simply odd." Kiba commented.

"I hear that a lot." Shirou said. He took the plate of sandwiches and offered on to Koneko, who graciously accepted. "Does being in a peerage mean something else?"

"Normally, devil peerage would be like you explained. A mostly business relationship with a touch of servitude within. However, I don't want my peerage to be like that. I want us to be like a family." Rias explained.

"Like a family huh? I think I would like that very much master." Shirou said, before tilting his head to the side. "Though if we are to be like a family, how should I address you?"

"Everyone else calls me Buchou, so if you wish you can call me that." Rias said. "By the way, I never did ask, but do you have a place to stay? I would have checked last night, but you disappeared almost instantly."

"No, I just stayed out in the woods. I was able to forage a decent amount of edible food out there." Shirou explained.

"My, you really are an interesting devil." Akeno said.

"Why didn't try to get a place to stay?!" Issei shouted.

"I didn't want to be a burden to my new mast- Sorry, I mean Buchou." Shirou replied.

"Well, I will get you a place to stay. Just give a me second to look this up." Rias said, pulling a binder out of her desk and flipping through it.

"You don't have to. I am fine staying out in the woods." Shirou said.

Koneko looked up at Shirou and said, "Convenient." Shirou just sighed and nodded.

"It looks like I have this old apartment still under my name. It's kinda beaten up. I was actually going to sell it off, but you can have it." Rias lied. The apartment was actually in mint condition, but she was planning on getting rid of it soon.

"Fine, if it isn't any trouble. I guess I will stay there." Shirou said.

"Okay, now that this is over, time to get to business. Shirou every contract gained will give us financial aid, and increase our standing as devils. The fliers you give out allow humans to contact us to form contracts. Now typically as a devil, you would have a familiar to do this stuff for you. Then when we had a new request for a contract, we would fill them with an appropriate devil."

"What kind of contracts will I do?" Shirou asked.

"As a Knight, you wont have as many contractors as say a pawn or a rook. This is mostly because the Knight is the least applicable piece for mundane problems. A pawn is a generalist, so they could do any job equally, and a rook is more physically powerful, allowing them to preform physical tasks. As a Knight, you are faster, but that isn't that useful for modern contracts. That means it will come down to your personal skills more than not."

"So the contracts are done in an efficient manner. They are matched to the best member that can fulfill the contract." Shirou said.

"Exactly." Rias said. "The reason I am telling this to you know is that we need you to do a courier contract. We get them every now and then, but tonight Yuuto-kun is busy with one of his regulars. Do you think your up to it?"

"If I can get a map."

"We will get you set up."

The magical circle that Shirou saw earlier were apparently teleportation sigils. Once he had been given a map and the basic instructions to ask for payment, they sent him off. The runes glowed a bright red as it siphoned small amounts of prana from him to activate the magical ability.

In an instant, Shirou was now in a beautiful foyer. The room had a blue and red theme to it that blended together well. In front of Shirou was a short man with a package beside him. The man was old and weathered, with numerous scars on his body. The package was an oblong sphere in a plastic bag. The man looked over Shirou before speaking.

"You the devil that's going to be doing this delivery?"

"Yeah, where does it have to go?" Shirou asked. The only response he got was a slip of paper placed in his palm.

"Does three hundred sound good?" The man asked, giving Shirou an envelope.

"Sure. Do you need me to return after the delivery?"

"No, just make the delivery and go back to hell, or where ever devils stay." The man said.

The trip itself was relatively easy. Shirou ran into no trouble and managed to practice some of his magecraft. His reinforcement was no different than before, probably due to objects having the same limits as before. Alteration magecraft was infinitely cheaper to preform, though the required skill was much the same. Shirou simply left the bag on the required door step and left.

Once he finished his delivery, Shirou reported back to Rias. When he arrived, he found an empty club house. A letter on the desk said that Rias and Akeno had to go out for a contract. Bellow the message, there were directions to his new apartment. When he arrived at the apartment, Shirou was honestly surprised.

He had a feeling that Rias was overestimating the damage the apartment had sustained, but this was ridiculous. The apartment wasn't large, having only a kitchen, a bedroom, a bath room and a living area. However, the floors where hardwood, the walls had a fresh coat of paint on them, the light fixtures were all well maintained. If it wasn't for the large amount of dust that accumulated in the apartment, Shirou would have guessed it to be newly renovated.

The dust was easily taken care of with a traced cloth and a traced bucket filled with water. When Shirou finished several hours later, the apartment was completely cleaned. The third story window showed a generous view of the city, with a small patio. The bed room had a futon, desk and chair. The kitchen area had a small fridge and stove.

The rest of the apartment lacked any furniture to speak of. Not that Shirou minded, he could just trace chairs and tables when he had guests coming over if need be. Shirou began to experiment with his tracing when he discovered something interesting. Without having Unlimited Blade Works, it was now easier to trace objects other than blades. It made a limited amount of sense since Unlimited Blade Works used to do all the tracing for him, and it was called Unlimitied **Blade **Works. Now, when Shirou traced, he was doing it himself.

Of course blades were still a lot easier, but that had to do with having an origin and element of 'sword'. This was colloquially referenced to being an incarnate. However, before it was about three to five times as difficult to trace a non-sword object. Now it was closer it twice as difficult. Shirou traced a noble phantasm to see how this effected his combat. What he discovered froze his blood.

Noble phantasms, or even mystic codes, didn't possess their supernatural abilities when he traced them. Again, Unlimited Blade Works must have been responsible for emulating the magical ability of the blades. Thankfully, these items still possess their mundane qualities. Shirou found that a traced Kanshou was still an expertly made blade that went beyond mortal levels in it's strength and edge.

Shirou went to bed with freshly brushed teeth and a nice shower. It had been so long since Shirou had been able to clean himself. During the last days of resistance, Shirou had been surrounded on all sides by Counter Guardians that were tasked with killing him. He hardly had time to eat in between fights. Thankfully, Shirou had allies during those fights, or he would have never made it as far as he did.

Shirou focused and entered his reality marble yet again. Now that he was focusing on the transition, it felt much smoother than it ever did with Archer's. The swords that appeared here felt far more physical than they did with Unlimited Blade Works. The only exception was with Archer's arrow-sword.

"Welcome back Shirou."

"Hey Archer. Did you know that I can't trace the mystic abilities of my swords anymore?"

"No that sound really frustrating though. You should try my 'sword' out though. See if me being here changes anything." Archer replied. Archer was sitting down on a chair, messing around with his projection ability.

"That makes sense. But I actually wanted a quick refresher on bounded fields first. I only know enough to project reality marbles and want to protect my new home."

"You have a new home?" Archer asked, looking up from his sword juggling.

"Oh yeah, you can't see the outside world." Shirou said. "Buchou, that's wait Rias wants me to call her, got me this nice little apartment to live in. The fridge was fully stocked too."

"Really? That's nice. Did you make any progress on your magecraft or your new reality marble aria?" Archer asked.

"Alteration is cheaper, but tracing and reinforcement remain the same." Shirou replied. Archer stopped his juggling to pick up 'his' sword. Shirou followed where Archer was leading him, since Archer was stuck here full time.

"Cool. I will teach you some bounded fields later, but be warned that I don't know much more than what was needed to project my reality marble." Archer warned. "Did you project Kanshou earlier today?"

"Yeah, could you notice from in here?"

"You have no idea how lucky you are to have me in here to notice when things change. It was a pain in the ass for me to learn things on my own." Archer complained, leading to the stone forms of Kanshou and Bakuya were stored. Kanshou was slightly more, alive? It was hard for Shirou to quantify.

"I see. I'll look into that, but first I will need enough knowledge to set up a workshop bounded field." Shirou said.


	3. Chapter 3

Spirit Sword

Chapter 3:

_I own nothing beyond this crazy idea and the laptop I write it on._

**Author's Note: I tend to lengthen the time of each arc to allow proper characterization. I did it again here. Please remember that I can and HAVE changed cannon to make a more interesting story. On that note, people have said that this Shirou is not HF!Shirou, to which, in hindsight, I agree too. Sadly I have no motivation to rewrite the entire story to account for that. So I am just going to say that the things that shifted this away from heaven's feel route also changed Shirou significantly.**

**People have been complaining about me making Shirou weaker, and I can understand why. That said, this chapter was always meant to explain what this new reality marble does instead of creating weaker fakes. I wont explain in this note, but next chapter I will if people don't follow along. While I have said this before, let me reiterate: This is a story I am writing on pain medication to get the idea out of my head. My coherent stories would be Fairy Cannon and Tale of Weapons. **

**Also, I've been offline for the last week, so I missed replying to some review. If you choose to review, I will almost always respond. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Shirou looked up at his personal sky. It had been a single week since he had landing in this strange world filled with devils, angels and fallen angels. Archer had been trying to teach him about bounded fields when they discovered the first change this new world created in Shirou. Devils didn't use magecraft, or even magic circuits. They had their own unique form of magic that Shirou could now learn.

Of course, being a sword incarnate, Shirou was still limited in what he could use his new magic to do. Another thing that was interesting is that do to having a reality marble, Shirou was now only second rate at creating magical fields. While the level of improvement between third rate and second rate was minimal, it was enough that Shirou could actually use it. Obviously, the weaker Gaia was mostly responsible for this change.

When Shirou tried to trace Archer's 'projectile sword' Shirou noticed something interesting. The initial tracing lacked magical abilities, but when Shirou focused on the spirit stored inside his reality marble, he felt something respond as the blade gained magical abilities. He had, for lack of a better word, 'Channeled' Archer's spirit into the traced blade.

The abilities of the traced blade were two fold. The first is the act of ignoring wind while it was in motion. The second was an explosive strike similar to a low-ranked broken phantasm. Needless to saw, the following clean up had been difficult. Another element that his mutated Reality Marble had was this ability to preform the 'channeling' on already existing items.

Archer believed that this 'channeling' to be the real purpose of the new reality marble. Further experimentation discovered several interesting quirks of this new ability. Archer was easiest to 'channel' into swords and arrows, to the point where it cost much more energy to 'channel' into other items. While they didn't know a lot about this new reality marble, Shirou came to the conclusion that using an aria to bring out his reality marble would increase the strength of the 'channelling', possibly to the point of being able to fully recreate a noble phantasm.

Another element that was very interesting was the effects of an items base strength. A weak item acted as a normal traced blade would, losing a rank of power. But when an item with enough strength was used, no drop in performance was notice. Of course this could be due to only using Archer's spirit. If Shirou had access to another spirit, he would have significantly more information to use.

Kanshou and Bakuya were extremely different then before. Each time Shirou traced the physical shell of them, their respective copy in his reality marble gained energy. Currently Archer believed that some form of final connection was required to create a proper spirit for the blades. Thankfully, Shirou had some ideas to try. First was to create an emotional bond between himself and the blade, which to this moment had led to no results.

Secondly, Shirou had said that perhaps he needed to mimic qualities of the blades so that his soul could be used as a template for the blades. This method was extremely difficult do to a lack of empathy with the blades. Until this moment neither Archer, or Shirou, considered the swords to be sentient, and as such it was difficult to create a theoretical mind to emulate.

Thankfully, Shirou had created strong bonds with Rias and the remainder of her peerage. Once Shirou properly understood the bond between them, he managed to create friendships that linked them together. While Shirou was still helpful to a fault, he no longer was a borderline butler. Even though Shirou prepared food and drink for the group, it was now more because of his own hobby that any feelings of servitude.

Shirou had earned a regular contractors during the week. The sword skills of Archer had been one of the first memories that Shirou had received. Shirou was called at least nightly to come and be a sparing partner for a kendo master that lived in the city. She was a master swordsman. The woman, one Kogeki Suzume, had become so good with the sword that no human, in this town at least, could challenge her.

"Hey Shirou we need to talk." Archer called out. Shirou responded by jumping to his feet and walking to where Archer was waiting.

"Yeah?"

"Your emotions are effecting the reality marble." Archer began. "You need to deal with the suppress emotions and memories from the Holy Grail War."

"What suppressed memories?" Shirou said.

"The ones in which you saw people dieing all around you again. Just like the fire we were born within." Archer explained. "By hiding them away and not acknowledging the emotional response your reality marble is getting weaker."

"I don't know what your talking about." Shirou replied.

"Stop being so weak! You said that you wouldn't give up after the war!" Archer yelled. "You vowed to be a sword in which people gain salvation! Are you going to turn back on all that to live a new life! A life payed with the blood of all those people you failed to save!"

"Shut up! How do you think I feel about this!"

"That's just it! You're not feeling! You are acting like Kiritsugu!" Archer yelled. "Did you forget your dream! Did you forget what hiding his emotions did to Kiritsugu?!"

"What am I supposed to feel?! I should be mortified and depressed, yet I am not! I am a monster! I can't even regret causing hundreds of innocents to die!" Shirou yelled, tears leaking out of his eyes. "I saved you, yet so many people died because of it! What kind of hero am I to allow so many to die to save one person!"

"Shirou, you are a sword. You have this reality marble because you are so different from human perception. So why are you giving up! You are not human! Don't limit yourself by their perception! Accept what happened!"

"And what?! Cry out in pain that I lost so many friends! Give up on my dreams because I lost so many people! What can I possibly do!" Shirou yelled out.

"Live! You are a sword! Live on despite the blood that stains you!" Archer shouted, jabbing his finger into Shirou's chest.

"I am a shitty sword! I didn't even manage to kill one of the Counter Guardians! The only thing left is to serve the one who brought me back to life! That is all I have!" Shirou yelled, slapping Archer's arm away.

"Just fucking mourn! Stop running from your emotions!"

"I have no purpose! I am nothing! They killed so many because I was weak!" Shirou yelled, causing his reality marble to jolt. Archer was going to reply but was stopped when he saw two blades glowing behind Shirou's back. "I saved you, but there is nothing left." Shirou said, freezing when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

Shirou looked over his shoulder and saw a vaguely humanoid form of light. The light was bright white with black energy flowing with it. Bakuya and Kanshou behind the spirit both were in their full colour and glory. The spirit began to take a solid form that resembled Shirou, except with black hair and pure white eyes.

The spirit said nothing, save look at Shirou in a vaguely supportive manner. Archer and Shirou stared at the new spirit for several minutes before it faded away from the reality marble, leaving behind a full colour Bakuya and Kanshou. Archer raised a single brow as his mind worked quickly to understand the changes that must have happened.

Shirou looked at the spirit before sighing and releasing the pent up emotions he held inside himself. Shirou felt more exhausted in that moment than he had during the Holy Grail War. When he woke up in the evening, he would have to work as a devil again.

* * *

Shirou looked up as Rias and her peerage entered the club house. Thankfully Shirou had proven that he had already finished school, thanks to Archer's memories. On the coffee table there was several muffins, with a tea pot and cup prepared to serve tea. Rias offered Shirou a smile as she entered the room. Several small greetings and people taking the offered tea and muffins took place before they began their work as devils.

Rias began to give a speech explaining that a devil should never enter a church, or even get near one. Apparently Issei had made an error in befriending a nun that had him direct her to the church. While Shirou could hardly fault Issei for wanting to help someone, it didn't seem wise for a devil, who were traditionally evil, to enter holy grounds. Then again, Shirou was more than used to the supernatural from his time as a magic user.

Shirou didn't have a contract that night, so he waited behind with Issei to hand out fliers again. Issei seemed to be heart broken over the scolding he got. Either way, Shirou helped Issei pack the fliers up in silence while the rest of the group went out and did their own contracts. Before the duo could leave the club proper, Akeno sneaked up behind Issei and spoke;

"Buchou is just worried about you." Issei reacted in a humorous manner, yelping and jumping forward into the still closed door. Akeno giggled slighted at the sight of a dazed Issei.

"Hello Akeno. I didn't think you were still here." Shirou said, smiling softly at his queen. While technically Akeno was only a fellow slave/servant under Rias, Shirou liked to think of her as an actual queen. It was a result of fighting with Arthuria, probably.

"I just got back with a message for Buchou." Akeno replied, looking over at Shirou. Issei, by this point, had begun to recover from his head trauma.

"What message did you get for me?" Rias said, entering the room from the side entrance.

"A stray devil was found on our land." Akeno said. Rias stiffened and began to call back her servants. The next several minutes were hectic as the rest of the peerage teleported into the room. Once the peerage was gathered they used the teleportation rune on the floor to teleport to a forest. It was just after dusk.

As they made their way into a large building nearby, Rias began speaking, "A stray devil is a servant that broke away from their master for selfish reasons. Without a master they have access to their full power to use against us. Be careful, they can't even control their own power anymore."

"Are they that dangerous?" Issei asked, taking a step back.

"Calm down Issei, we wont let anything happen to you." Kiba said, patting Issei on the back. The group entered the building, with Rias and Issei speaking of the evil piece system. Apparently Rias didn't tell Issei of his own piece until now, probably to slowly introduce the new elements that being a devil introduces into his life.

Shirou felt his magic circuits warm up as he began to produce prana. His eyes and ears sharpened as he reinforced them to the utmost he currently could. His muscles had their output increase significantly. He felt his mind bring up the schematics for Bakuya and Kanshou instinctively, being both his and Archer's favourite blades. He heard heavy foot steps approaching the group and faced the direction is was coming it.

Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw. Shirou survived the Holy Grail War, and technically won since he was the last master to still 'live'. He saw a giant man that wielded a stone axe made of stone that was the size of a small van. Shirou himself had access to one of the most difficult fields of magics, a reality marble, that only a handful of humans had ever reached. Somehow, despite all of this he was honestly surprise by what the 'stray devil' looked like.

It's, or 'her', body was that of a human female completely nude with large breasts. However the bottom half of her body was distinctly arachnid in origin with eight legs. While 'her' upper body was unarmoured, her lower body had several 'plates' of organic materials. A quick structural analysis showed Shirou their strength as protective organs. The 'woman', if 'she' could even be considered humanoid anymore, had long black hair that was generally nice looking, if not practical.

Shirou felt his prana leave his body to trace his favourite swords. The black and white blades Bakuya and Kanshou formed in his hands, resonating with Shirou's unique status as a sword. However, unlike all the other noble phantasms Shirou had traced in the past week, these blades created a reaction within his reality marble.

Time felt slower as Shirou saw into his reality marble. The twin blades where resonating as the spirit from the night before reappeared. Shirou instinctively split the spirit into two part, granting each of his blades one half of the "Spirit of the Twin Blades; Kanshou Bakuya". Shirou felt the energy drain into his reality marble, much like when he was using Archer as the "Spirit of the Projectile Blade".

Shirou felt the swords in his hands gain the magical properties, in their full strength. Unlike Archer's projections, which were weaker physically and mystically, using these 'Spirits' granted their full magical abilities to the projection. Thankfully, Kanshou's and Bakuya's magical ability was fairly weak. Shirou knew that this was the only reason that the blades didn't become broken.

The woman created magic circles around her nipples and shot forth a blast of magic to destroy them. Before Rias could do anything, Shirou took advantage of his speed as a knight to rush into the blast. If he was wielding degraded blades, he would have died in the charge. However, he was using the full power of Bakuya and Kanshou's enchantment. His magical resistance was artificially increase by wield both halves of the twin blades.

The magical energy wasn't effected in any manner, it simply failed to effect Shirou. The blast continued after passing around Shirou as if he wasn't there. The monster, for it couldn't be anything else for Bakuya and Kanshou to be strengthened to this point, was surprised to see Shirou so easily shrug off a lethal blast of magic.

The beast used it front most legs to skewer Shirou. The leg was sent straight through Shirou's defences, only to be parried at the very last moment. The monster managed to surprise Shirou by blasting a silky net of energy over Shirou that severely slowed down his speed. Thankfully, Kiba dashed by the arachnid and slicing through the human arms it possessed. This gave them the chance to disengage and back off.

The young Koneko stood in front of them with a large desk held up in the air. A single heave and the desk was sent flying into the creature. The creature was forced back for a moment as it was unable to use it's arms to block the attack. Akeno walked forward with a wide grin on her face. Thankfully, for Shirou's sanity, he didn't even give her a glance as he focused on the creature.

Maniacal laughter rose from Akeno throat as he used demonic energies to create electricity and electrocute the creature. Rather than be output by the sadistic activities, Shirou found an interesting feature that his blades shouldn't have.

Archer's projections never provided him with the bonus magical resistance when wielding both of them. The pair were aware of this magical ability, but never had they successfully recreated it. Perhaps when Shirou managed to finally return to his reality marble, Archer would have an idea. Shirou forced his mind back into his more combative mentality as Rias stepped forward. She used her magical energies to create a large inferno that consumed the creature.

"Shirou, how did you create those swords?" Issei asked. The rest of the group also looked at Shirou, with Kiba looking a rather strange combination of affront and .. affection?

"I traced them. Um, that means I created them from prana." Shirou said, only to be receive blank stares. "It's magecraft, human magic."

"Why didn't you tell us you could use magic?" Akeno asked, the magic expert among peerage.

"It didn't seem that important I guess?" Shirou said, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm not that good of a magus, and beyond that I have to relearn most of it since becoming a devil. I would have preferred waited for another week or so before using it again."

"So how does this magic, 'magecraft', allow you to create swords?" Kiba asked, staring at Shirou rather closely.

"It just lets me copy any blade I've seen. Um I grasp the entire blade and it's history before using that knowledge to create a 'shell' in the shape of that blade and fill it with that blade's history." Shirou explained, not sensing anyone close to the peerage.

"Interesting. Where did you learn this ability?" Rias asked, piecing together small parts of her knight's past.

"I kinda pieced it together from the little things my father taught me." Shirou explained. Rias and Akeno shared a sceptical look at that morsel of information.

"Well, I guess that means we should teach you 'proper' magic sempai." Akeno said, smiling in that strange manner of hers.

"Sure I guess, that's fine. Issei should probably learn something too." Shirou said, causing Issei to jolt from his awe. Watching the other devils fight had been an eye opener for him. His ego had been rather high lately, but after seeing such an amazing display he felt put out even if he wielding a sacred gear.

"Really? I can learn real magic? I thought that was a thing you needed to be born into." Issei said, his eye wide.

"No, all devils reincarnated with the evil piece system gain the ability to use magic. However only Bishops or a Queen are particularly talented at it." Rias explained, before looking at Shirou and nodding. "You are right though, I will have to start training him."

The group began clearing the building of anything remotely magical to prevent the common people from becoming involved in the world of magic that should be invisible and transparent. Kiba managed to convince Shirou to allow him to crash at his house over the weekend and compare swords. Akeno naturally twisted what he had said, though Shirou wasn't really bothered by the innuendo.

**End**


	4. Chapter 4

Spirit Sword

Chapter 4:

_I own nothing beyond this crazy idea and the laptop I write it on._

**Author's Note: I am on pain medication less often then before, so you may see an increase in quality. University starts next week, so hopefully when I return to this I will be completely off my pain meds. Last chapter a couple people complained about Shirou's new reality marble, and as promised I will be explaining it here: **

** It is much more modular than before. The 'Spirits' are the magical abilities of various weapons. The purpose is that once Shirou fully understands his new reality marble and properly gains access to the veritable vault of weapons he was, Shirou would be able to mix and match different magical properties. Another element is that the physical properties of the noble phantasms are now bound to his tracing.**

** I imagine it like a mana pool (Edit: Arcane Pool) from Pathfinder's Magus class. Shirou can spend prana to create a traced physical base or use an existing base. From that base he can pick and choose enchantments that serve his purpose. Example, he could have an arrow with both Gae Bolg's heart seeking property (And its non healing curse) and Archer's Broken Phantasm property (That is what Archer's spirit does). This is not only cheaper that tracing and breaking Gae Bolg naturally(With Unlimited Blade Works, Since an existing arrow was used), but it can be applied to any item that fits the criteria that both 'spirits' require.**

** Naturally the prana cost will increase as you use more and more powerful enchantments. Gae Bolg is more expensive than Archer's 'spirit', but Excalibur Destruction's 'spirit' is more expensive than both combined. That is why I doubled Shirou's magic circuits, so that when the time comes, I can have him stack five or six spirits on one sword. **

** While my understanding of the Nasu-verse is far, really far, from being complete, but I took a little bit of creative freedom in this chapter.**

* * *

Archer was tired. That was strange due to him being an incorporeal spirit supported by Shirou's reality marble. However, the information that Shirou provided him was causing a large headache then it should have. When Shirou had channeled the 'Spirit of the Twin Blades', Archer had felt the expenditure of prana and that allowed him to create a functional thesis on how this new reality marble worked. When Shirou entered the reality marble that evening things had been proven incorrect.

Archer understood the concept of origin slightly more than most magus, mostly because of having almost infinite time to search his under his service to Alaya. While an origin can be simplified to one word, it is at it's centre much more complex. Archer himself found his origin to be 'sword', but in the usage of 'a tool to be used to kill'. The difference with Shirou was that his origin was 'sword', but in the usage of 'a work of art meant for war'.

In the English language, or any language really, it would be difficult to describe the difference between the two usages of 'sword'. Thankfully the differences were corporal in this case. The implications of 'tool' means something used to achieve an end. It is impersonal, to the point that in Archer's reality marble every item was recorded factually and logically. In this case, 'used to kill' means any item that kills as part of that end. Both of these concepts refer back to Archer's original origin of 'sword' meaning that he only copies swords at his most efficient.

While Archer eventually learnt to force his reality marble to behave in a manner to allow him to copy items of defensive origin, his reality marble was still designed, or rather formed, to align with his origin. In fact, this understanding of the forces or subtleties of one's origin is required to progress while working on a reality marble. Archer initially believed that Shirou had an identical origin to him because he was a possible future version of Shirou. It was this mistake that was now causing him such a headache.

Shirou's reality marble wasn't different because Archer's soul was fused with his, but because he had a slightly different origin to Archer. A 'work of art' is much more emotional and sophisticated then 'tool'. Rather than simple logistical copies, a fully separate identity was forged from the history of the blades. To be 'meant for war' was significantly different to be 'used to kill', as in war may creation were made to protect their users or limit casualties. This difference meant that Shirou's reality marble natural interacted with protective items. Still, because of his centre origin of 'sword' Shirou had difficulty with not bladed items.

It had taken him close to twenty four hours to isolate the source of the disturbance. A hell filled with structural grasping of Shirou's soul and reality marble. Thankfully he finally finished so that he could rest his overworked mind. After using a projected pad of paper and a pen to leave a message for Shirou, Archer finally let himself succumb to sleep.

Shirou munched on a protein bar while he followed the nun that Issei spoke of the day before. Asia he believed her name was. Asia was a short, petite nun with brilliant blonde hair. Really, Shirou was essentially stalking her, but he had nothing better to do until the rest of the Gremory peerage was done with their schooling. The curious thing about this nun was that she reminded Shirou of Sakura.

The thought of the woman he loved more than anything made Shirou cringe. He failed to save her, but now he was alive again. Banishing the thoughts from his mind, Shirou focused on the girl ahead of him. He found her running errand for whom he presumed to be the priest of the church. She was walking around town and preforming small prayers at key points.

Shirou knew logically that these rituals were harmful to him, but he just didn't care. It is not that he wanted to die, but rather he didn't have any self value. Suddenly Asia stiffened and looked to the right. Shirou thought nothing of it until he saw her eyes. Those were the eyes of someone who was tormented daily. Someone to whom had lost everything but still refused to die.

They were the eyes that Sakura had. The thought of such torture being applied to another person made Shirou's blood boil, but he managed to reign in his emotions. He was a sword before all else, and swords should not be irrational. Shirou followed her line of sight to an odd creature. It was a rather attractive woman wearing provocative leather clothing.

The black feathered wings on her back were what drew his attention. The wing span was huge, almost the entire length of her body. Shirou's mind went blank as he felt something dangerous. His body began to produce prana in response to the instinctual threat he felt inside this creature. That meant that this was either an angel or fallen angel.

The fallen angel was speaking to Asia, but Shirou ignored it. He used his structural grasping on the wings. He found a huge amount of magical circuits in those wings, with the required muscles and bones to make them physically possible. Shirou returned his attention to the nun he was following. Asia said something in a hushed voice. The fallen angel replied with something in a haughty voice.

Shirou was momentarily blinded as the fallen angel used magic to take Asia and disappear. Shirou sighed as he felt guilt for leaving the young woman. Sadly he wasn't advanced enough with his tracing and reality marble work to guaranty a victory. Shirou returned to the club house with an hour left and spent that time within his reality marble.

While Archer could manifest his reality marble or internalize it, Shirou could only interact with it while he was unconscious or meditating. Within the world with a shattered sky and lush grass, he saw the projectile sword and the twin blades in full colour as their spirits rested. Unlike Archer, who had a full life and enough time to process his memories, the joint spirit of Bakuya and Kanshou were comparable to a new born. It had yet to create a solid personality and spent most of it's time within it's blades.

Before Shirou could fall into his reality marble completely, he felt a sudden shift in the air. When Shirou opened his eyes he saw Issei and Kiba in front of him. Issei looked an odd combination of worried and glad, sitting on the couch opposite of him and serving himself tea. Kiba was beside Shirou and looked vaguely amused.

"Hey Shirou." Issei greeted.

"Your quite early today aren't you Shirou?" Kiba asked.

"Not any more than usual. It's not like I have school to occupy my time." Shirou replied. "So whats up for tonight?"

"I will be taking your usual contract while you help Issei with another attempt." Kiba smiled. "Buchou believes that you could help Issei since you are a new devil too."

"It's not like I need help." Issei grumbled, clearly upset about his recent failures.

"Don't worry, it takes some getting used to." Shirou said.

* * *

It was nightfall when the contractor called for Issei. Because of Issei's inability to use the teleportation runes, Issei and Shirou were travelling on foot to the home of the contractor. It was a simple town house with a bland, but functional, design. The door was slight ajar when the duo arrive. While Issei was naive enough not to think anything of it, Shirou was put on guard.

They entered into a hallway and a living room. Issei began to retch as he saw the contents of the room. Shirou looked into the room and what he saw made him angry and upset. A man, presumably the contractor, was crucified on the wall, without his head. The floors were soaked in blood. The dead bodies of his assumed family were strewn about with no regard for human life.

Shirou stepped in front of Issei and activated all of his natural magic circuits. The 27 circuits provided him with the prana to reinforce his body and trace Bakuya and Kanshou. For now he left the twin blades spirit alone. He saw a lanky priest with silver hair in front of him. The priest held a cylinder in one hand and a pistol in the other. The cylinder released a beam of light that acted as a sword.

"Oh, is it the shitty devils?" The priest asked, causing Shirou to have flashbacks of Kirei, the false priest that was truly a sadist that used magic to interfere with the holy grail war. "Hey, I am the priest Freed, but don't introduce yourself. I don't want to know the names of the shitty devils I kill!"

With that final shout Freed launched himself forward at speeds that surprised Shirou. Still, Shirou was faster still and used Bakuya to black the blade of light and slashed forward with Kanshou. The black blade sliced through the mans chest, but unfortunately he was able to move out of the way so that it was only a surface wound.

"Ah you fucking devils cut me! See how you like this." Freed shouted, bringing his pistol up and firing several rounds at Shirou. Shirou saw the light bullets fly towards him and used the flat of Bakuya to block the shots. However, Freed used this distraction to dash at Issei and attempt to slice him. Issei barely managed to jump back in time, but made a stupid mistake.

In combat, it was beyond stupid to leave the ground unless you had a method of free form flight. Otherwise you would be too predictable. Thus when freed brought his gun forward and unleashed a trio of bullets into Issei's right shoulder, Shirou couldn't be surprised. Issei fumbled his landing and gasped as pain must have numbed his other emotions.

Shirou dashed forward and locked blades with Freed, while his other blade lashed forward to remove his hand. Freed stepped back and brought his blade parallel to the ground, before attempting to pierce Shirou's heart with a perceived opening.

"Got you now, you shitty devil!" Freed yelled, only to curse when Shirou used Kanshou to knock the blade of course. It was a suicidal way of fighting, and Shirou knew that. He purposely left openings in his stance and made them painfully obvious. Because of this, he always knew where the enemy would attack and could use those prediction to parry or dodge.

Freed swore and shot his gun in a wide arc, forcing Shirou to back off. Behind him, Issei had activated his sacred gear on his left arm. The draconic hand covering had a large green gem in the centre with red scales with yellow claws coming out of it. However, with his right arm out of the battle and the pain leaving him on the ground.

Freed fired shots at Shirou, forcing him to dodge. Once Shirou was moving, Freed dashed towards Issei to take him out of the fight. Issei managed to roll to the right, barely, and dodge the downwards chop from the crazy priest. Freed had no chance to reengage Issei as Shirou appeared before him and attempted to bisect him.

Freed managed to duck and step towards the right. The fight was going to continue, but a female shriek was heard. Asia was in the door way, fell to her knees as she stared at the dead people. Freed gained a twisted smile as he dashed up to her. Shirou hissed as Freed placed Asia between them.

"This is the first time you saw this side of our job, Bitch?" Freed asked, slapping Asia across the face. This got a growl from the two devils.

"You were supposed to keep the barrier up!" A punch straight to the gut. Behind Issei a red rune light up, with the Gremory crest at it's centre. "See you bitch! You let the devil summon back up." This time Freed ripped her veil off. Behind Shirou, Issei was in shock at seeing his new friend being an exorcist.

Rias and her peerage appeared in the rune and grabbed Issei, who was on the verge of passing out from the pain and shock he was in. Shirou stood between his master and Freed, tensing to engage at the soonest possible moment. Freed kept Asia as a human shield, while aiming his pistol at Shirou. Shirou called forth the spirit of the twin swords and split them between his two tracings.

"Shirou come here, we are leaving." Rias called, being flanked by both Kiba, with a Black Katana in his hand, and Koneko, in a louse boxing stance.

"What?" Shirou said, practically hissing.

"Four fallen angels are on their way, we are leaving now." Rias said, before her eye widened at the sight before her. She saw the state of Asia, and she understood.

"Better leave devil-chan! I have to rape little Asia so that she learns to do her job~." Freed said. Shirou at that moment remembered. He remembered Sakura, who was debased and raped because of her grand father Zouken. The worms that eat her and brought out the darkness within her. Shirou in that moment felt rage.

Rage and blood lust filled Shirou. He was a sword, but even so he couldn't stop feeling rage. Shirou had been angry, but never had he wanted to hurt another. He never lusted to spill the blood of his enemies like he did then. Shirou ignored Rias, and he threw Bakuya at Freed. Freed shot the blade off course, but that was what Shirou wanted. He didn't want this to end quickly.

Before Shirou could charge forward, he felt a heavy blow at the base of his neck and then he knew no more.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Archer was grim when Shirou regained enough self awareness to enter his reality marble. Shirou was going to ask why when he saw his personal world. The moon in the broken sky was blood red. The grass was no longer lush and green, but a dull silver and made of blades. There on a hill was Lancer.

The hero Cu Chulainn wielded the demonic spear Gae Bolg. During his life, and even within the Holy Grail War he was summoned in, he was polite and kind and greatly enjoyed fighting battles. His spear, Gae Bolg, was of demonic origin. Of all the blades within Archer's Unlimited Blade Works, this spear was the one with the greatest bloodlust. Other had experienced bloodlust, but this spear was made for bloodlust. Shirou had been struck by the spear before, having only survived it's curse due to Avalon stored within him.

"Hey kid." Chulainn greeted Shirou, a large smile on his face.

"How?" Shirou asked Archer, no other words really nessicary.

"During your latest battle, you felt the greatest bloodlust in your life, and connected with Gae Bolg." Archer explained.

"Basically, from how I see it, I am a part of Gae Bolg's legend. When you created a spirit of my spear, it became me since I live and died with Gae Bolg." Chulainn explained, looking around as the world shifted back to it's earlier form. He looked at Archer with a single eyebrow raised. "I thought reality marbles were more stable."

"They normally are, but this isn't a realized reality marble." Archer explained, before turning to Shirou. "When you get a weapon's spirit, it takes the form and memories of the blade. Gae Bolg was only wielded by Lancer, so he is the only one who represents it as a spirit."

"Odd, why was Bakuya and Kanshou an odd version of me?" Shirou asked.

"Kid, Archer here is the only one who wielded them blades. Then you wielded them, but in both cases they weren't your only blades, or even your best blades." Chulainn theorized. "So I think that they had no other spirit to copy, and as such became a derivative of you."

"So I can use Gae Bolg's spirit now?" Shirou clarified.

"Well, he is that spirit, and this is your reality marble. It is up to you to actually use him." Archer said.

Well, this was odd, but Shirou could understand why he had 'syncronized' with Gae Bolg. He wanted to kill Freed. It was an odd feeling. He never wanted to hurt people before, but now he had this need to murder Freed. Shirou wasn't stupid, even though he was a third rate magus, he understood why he felt this way. The girl, Asia, was going to suffer like Sakura had. He had to stop it. Shirou failed Sakura, but he would never let another person suffer like that.

So thats what it boiled down to. He wanted to kill Freed because he reminded him of what Sakura had gone through. Shirou decided that he would save Asia. At that moment, he found resolve and a goal. Since the Counter Guardians were summoned, he had been on auto pilot. Just surviving every day, not truly living.

That changed then. Shirou was going to murder Freed and save Asia. Probably not in that order.

**End**


	5. Chapter 5

Spirit Sword

Chapter 5: So the Killing Begins

_I own nothing beyond this crazy idea and the laptop I write it on._

**Author's Note: Hey, this chapter is alot longer than my usual ones. I'm sure that if you are still reading this that you don't really mind. Some notes I want to bring u; University is starting tomorrow, and might slow done my typing speed. Another thing, Archer doesn't break noble phantasms, but rather makes normal items into broken phatasms.**

**Alot of people like my last chapter, and I can only think it's because people really don't like Freed. Mind, I actually hate Freed too. If anyone thinks anything about my story I suggest you review. If you want a response, I recommend you use a fanfiction account with Private Messaging enabled.**

* * *

Shirou groaned as he regained consciousness. It was never pleasant to wake up after being knocked out. Shirou was staring up at the ceiling of the club house that hid the Gremory Peerage. Shirou felt his magic circuits complaining from the sudden stress that had been placed under. While his magic circuits were both strong enough and numerous enough to easily use his magecraft, they didn't deal well with sudden shifts.

That was why some magus couldn't use high level magecraft, it wasn't that they couldn't create enough prana, but that their circuits couldn't handle the shift between production and rest fast enough. Perhaps Shirou was still incorrectly using his circuits for them to be complaining like this, if so everything he thought he knew about magecraft was wrong.

Shirou sat up and saw Kiba sitting on the couch across from him. He was leaning forward with his head resting low. His long blond hair covered his eye and most of his facial features. Shirou softly called his name once, then twice. When he got no response, Shirou realized that Kiba must have fallen asleep while watching over him.

Shirou knew that his bond with Kiba was much stronger than anyone else in the peerage. Personally, if he was asked, Shirou would account it to both of them sharing the majority of their personality. Both were polite and kind to a fault. While Kiba was slightly more reserved than Shirou, they were essentially mirrors of each other. Even their mystical abilities mirrored each other, the ability to make swords. Obviously these comparisons were only skin deep, but it was these initial similarities that had began their relationship.

Shirou stood up and noticed the time. The clock read four in the morning. Shirou normally fell asleep at this time, embracing his nocturnal habits that came with this new life. Shirou gently made Kiba lie down and covered him with a blanked. It was only after this that Shirou stopped procrastinating. While he wanted to kill Freed, and he acknowledged this, but it wasn't a natural feeling for him.

Shirou took a deep breath and fought to control his blood lust. It wouldn't do for him to lose control of it again. Several minutes passed before Shirou felt his emotions enter an equilibrium. Shirou knew that the fallen angels worked from the church, but without backup or a plan, he couldn't save Asia. Shirou felt his body's od and grimaced. While he could make prana from mana, his body's energy, od, was easier to use.

Shirou was surprised by the low levels of his od, but when he realized that Bakuya and Kanshou were still in existence and using his prana to remain in the world he cursed. With Archer's reality marble, Shirou's tracings stopped existing as soon as he stopped focusing on it. Shirou closed his eyes and reached for Bakuya and Kanshou. Upon grasping at the steam of prana, Shirou negated his tracings.

Shirou figured he might as well speak with his spirits since his body needed more rest to recover the remainder of his od. His body went still as his mind entered his inner world. The grass was now a lush green, but the moon retained it's deep red colouration. Archer and Cu Chulainn were off, deep within this world.

Before Shirou had fallen asleep, Chulainn heard that reality marbles could be endless and made Archer come with him to explore the depth of this world. Chulainn wasn't doing this for Shirou. He decided to do this to pass the time and hopefully find some cool weapons that would have interesting spirits. Thankfully, unlike Archer and Chulainn, Shirou knew the entirety of his reality marble. It took several minutes, but Shirou eventually found them at a small valley.

While there was thousands of blades in this reality marble, not all of them were from Shirou's past. When he fused his soul with Archer, Archer's Unlimited Blade Works spilled over so that Shirou could also use it. Fortunately, the blades of Unlimited Blade Works also carried over into Shirou's new reality marble.

Archer was explaining something to Chulainn when Shirou entered hearing range. "- causes irrevocable change to anything it collides with."

"What does?" Shirou asked, earning the attention of Archer and Chulainn.

"Oh, it's sleeping beauty. Well your messed up reality marble is being weird again." Archer said, "Catch."

Shirou's hand flew forward and caught a stone cylinder with one end coming to a rounded point. Shirou's eye widened as he recognized the .30-06 Springfield round. His father, Emiya Kiritsugu, was called the Magus Killer because of this bullet. He simply called it the Origin shot. These bullets were made from his powdered ribs to externalize this origin onto the target. His father's origin was a dual origin of 'severing' and 'binding'.

"These are not swords... they're not even blades..." Shirou said.

"I know. Think about it though. What if they became a sword..." Archer said, causing Shirou to stare at him with wide eyes. For good reason, this kind of weapon was dangerous beyond belief. When the bullet collided with living flesh, it would heal instantly, but incorrectly. This caused severe necrosis, but was even more dangerous to magic users. Magic circuits would be severed and bound back together incorrectly, discharging all of the stored energy in a destructive wave.

"So, this is really cool kid. Every enchantments that could be a sword is stored here. Be sure to find some cool ones for me." Chulainn said, smiling at Shirou.

"Yeah sure. Listen, I am going to need some practice with spear fighting." Shirou said, remembering his purpose for being here.

"Why? You can just use the history of the weapon to fake it." Archer asked.

"Doing that limits me to only using Chulainn's skills. Like with our two sword fighting style, I feel more comfortable using my own skills. It's more natural." Shirou explained.

"Well, if he had some experience wielding a spear on his own, then he could use my enchantment without needing the highly recognizable Gae Bolg to fake the skills with." Chulainn spoke.

"Fine, but I doubt it will help with anything that quickly." Archer sighed, "It would take close to a month before we got any rewards for that kind of work."

"Well my sword technique is top notch and my archery is well above average. So naturally I will make my own technique for another weapon." Shirou replied, "I have a target in mind for tonight."

"Don't get yourself killed."

"I already did." Shirou replied.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It was well into the afternoon when Shirou woke up. The room was completely empty, but a note was pinned to the door. Shirou stood up and did some stretches. After grabbing the note, Shirou walked to the kitchen and prepared a light breakfast. Once he was finished eating, Shirou read the note. Predictably it was from Rias, telling him not to be reckless. What surprised him was her asking him to look for Issei during the day.

From what Shirou understood, Issei hadn't shown up at school that day. However, since the peerage couldn't risk looking suspicious, it fell to Shirou to find Issei and make sure he was safe. Shirou had a feeling that this was the only reason he was allowed out, but hopefully if he located Issei quickly, he would have enough time to track Freed down.

First things first, he would have to fulfil his job for Rias. After all, he wouldn't want Issei to get tracked down by Freed before Shirou could get to him. Actually, Issei had said he walked Asia to her place of residence. That meant they were at least friends. So if Asia wanted someone to turn to, it would be Issei. Shirou made his mind and left the club house in search of Issei. It was likely that Shirou would have to fight, so he prepared Gae Bolg for tracing.

When Shirou found Issei, he wasn't truly surprised that he also found Asia. What had surprised him was the fact that they seemed to be on a date. Issei was leading Asia from the arcade to a small fountain surrounded by forest. Shirou felt an alien smell drift to his nose. A magus had the ability to sense magic with his mortal senses. Shirou himself smelled magic.

He knew it was a fallen angel. Shirou never smelled a fallen angel when they weren't masking their power, but he knew that this was a fallen angel. Shirou traced a simple arrow with Archer's bow. While Archer's bow wasn't a noble phantasm, it was made to fire noble phantasms modified into arrows. As such the black bow was more than strong enough to handle Shirou's fully reinforced strength.

Shirou knocked his arrow and began to activate his 27 natural magic circuits. Once he fully activated his circuits, Shirou called into his reality marble and pulled on Archer's spirit. He felt the arrow in his hand hum and the power was added to it's existence. Shirou took deep breaths and calmed his mind.

The fallen angel from before appeared before him, with Issei and Asia being ninety degrees to the right of the fallen angel. The fountain was directly under her, making it impossible for her to fully land on the ground. Asia said a name that Shirou would burn into his memory as he second target, Raynare. In a way, while Freed was a disgusting excuse for a human, similar to Zouken, Raynare was both more dangerous and responsible for all that happened to Asia.

Issei pulled out his sacred gear from where ever it was stored. For the first time Shirou managed to structurally grasp the item. What he discovered shocked him to the core. It was one of thirteen longinus sacred gears with the power to overcome God. This particular case was one that doubled his power every ten seconds, but only to the level his body could sustain. The 'proper' term was the Boosted Gear, but Shirou saw the truth of the sacred gear. It was the spirit Ddraig, the Welsh Dragon Emperor.

Shirou's mind was forced through the history of that spirit in moments, and he felt his reality marble react accordingly. When he eventually regained his mind, he saw Issei take an attack from a spear of light. Shirou ignored all irrelevant details and took aim with his bow. While Asia used her sacred gear, a much less complicated Twilight Healing, Shirou let the arrow fly. While a normal arrow would be dramatically slower than a bullet, the combination of supernatural bow and reinforced strength lessened that difference.

Raynare shouted in shock as a speeding projectile came flying out of nowhere. She didn't even have a chance to fully dodge the projectile. Not that it mattered. The arrow hit her in the left bicep, but instead of either sinking into the flesh or bouncing off, the arrow exploded. Raynare shouted as her flesh burned and she was thrown back from both devils. Asia gave a startled shout and Issei gasped. Shirou himself grimaced as he felt a large chunk of his magic circuits warm up to dangerous levels. He had severely underestimated the cost of forcing a more powerful rank through his spirit.

Raynare wasn't in a pleasant situation. While both her wings were fine, her left arm was completely missing and her torso was heavily burnt. Another thing that Shirou wasn't expected was the more concentrated effect with Archer's spirit. Although it was his fault for assuming that Archer's enchantment was identical to normal broken phantasms. Another thing that bothered him was how quickly the cost of Archer's spirit increased. Instead of each forced increase in rank costing the same, each rank increase cost about nine times as much as the rank before it.

Overall, it was a starling discovery. Perhaps it had more to do with the fact that he was forcing more of his reality marble without a proper aria or technique. Really Shirou needed to get a proper workshop so that he could do the experiments he needed to advance his reality marble. This wasn't the time to be considering his reality marble. Raynare was on her knees on the other side of the fountain, but was slowly getting up. Shirou's eyes widened when he saw her turn to Asia and Issei. Perhaps she would kidnap Asia and force her to heal her.

Shirou used his knight speed, and reinforced it to get to Asia before Raynare could recover enough to make a move. Along the way Shirou cut his connection to his bow and traced Bakuya and Kanshou. Issei gave a startled shout when he saw Shirou appear out of nowhere in front of him. Before Issei could speak, Shirou gave him a single command.

"Take Asia and run." The voice that Shirou used frightened him. It was cold and devoid of emotion. The only thing that Issei could do was grab Asia by the hand and begin running towards the school.

"So you are the one who attacked Freed last night." Raynare said.

"And you are his employer." Shirou responded, settling into his basic stance.

"I am going to kill you for daring to attack me. It was luck that got you that hit, your stupid devil!" Raynare yelled, bringing her one arm up to create a light spear and launch it a Shirou. Thankfully Shirou managed to dodge to the right and dash forwards. Raynare flapped her wings to bring her body upwards and out of the way of Shirou's attack.

Shirou simply gave a wide grin when he surprised Raynare by throwing a sword at her. Raynare failed to dodge out of the way and took the sword straight the in stomach. Raynare gave a scream of pain as the blade split her skin and several of her internal organs. She responded with a large spear of light that stabbed at Shirou. Thankfully Shirou was able to dash back and avoid the attack.

"Damn, now I need that cunt's Twilight Healing." Raynare cursed, causing the rage from the previous night to resurface. Thankfully Shirou was able to reign in his urges to continue fighting rationally. The copy of Bakuya in Raynare's body dispersed into prana as Shirou released his hold on it. In his main hand that was now free, Shirou traced a blood red spear with a barbed end and an evil aura.

Raynare flew higher as she recognized the demon spear. "Gae Bolg" Raynare's voice was breathless and frightened. Shirou's smile grew wider as he saw the fear in his enemy. He may not be able to save Sakura, but he will save Asia from her fate. Shirou kicked of the ground and ran at full speed towards Raynare. Raynare attempted to fly out of range but as soon as Shirou was directly under her, he transferred his horizontal velocity to a vertical jump.

Raynare's face was already pale from blood loss, but if she retained the ability her face would have became white as a ghost at that moment. Shirou's face became uncharacteristically sadistic as he saw the fear in Asia's tormentor's eyes. Raynare created a large spear of light to pierce Shirou through. It was too late for her, but token resistance was part of this farce of a fight they were going through.

Shirou's voice was quiet, but it's tone and cadence froze Raynare's blood.

"Gae"

The spear came rushing down towards Shirou's spear hand. Shirou's magic circuits began producing the prana it needed to both channel and activate Gae Bolg's enchantment. The spear was glowing a deeper red at it felt the prana enter it.

"BOLG!"

With this final shout, the universe was rewritten. Cause and effect no longer mattered as a new cause was created. "The heart was pierced" caused the effect "The spear was thrust". In that moment, Raynare's spear came down and sliced a nasty gash from Shirou's shoulder to his hand. It didn't matter as her heart was already pierced. The demon spear turned into a red line that pierced straight through the fallen angel's heart. The wound was a clean incision with little blood spilling, but Raynare was already dead.

Shirou's arm stung worst than when he himself has died. Thankfully, the fallen angel was dead and falling to the ground, allowing Shirou to land heavily and fall to his knees without repercussions. His circuits were pleasantly warm, the beginning signs that he was approaching his limit. Forcing Archer's spirit to become more powerful had cost him too much prana. However, it was still cheaper than projecting full noble phantasms, granted not by much.

Shirou felt something within him stir and begin to heal the damage dealt to him. Shirou drew a blank until he remembered the existence of the only real noble phantasm he owned. Avalon, the mystical sheath of King Arthur that would prevent him from losing a single drop of blood as long as he held it. Every time Shirou was injured it began to heal him, but not in his original image, but into a creature that could use it despite not being King Arthur.

Shirou was told that it was due to Avalon that he survived the Grail War. With King Arthur as his servant, it was able to fully heal him whenever he was damaged. Eventually it healed him into a mirror of King Arthur. While not perfect, his soul was now close enough to forcibly use Avalon without King Arthur to supply prana to it. Even if he wanted, he couldn't explain how it worked. Avalon itself was beyond human make, being made by fae creatures.

Light was poisonous to devils, but despite this Avalon managed to heal the damage. Shirou stood up, and looked up at the sky. Now that he had killed Raynare, he felt his bloodlust lessen, but not disappear. Of course Shirou didn't enjoy this feeling, but he knew that it would come back again to full strength again when he saw Freed.

It was the end of the school day when Shirou arrived at the club house. From the looks of the peerage, Issei just finished explaining what had happened when he walked in. Kiba immediately spun to look at him, only to calm when he noticed it was just Shirou. Koneko seemed to have been very worried, in that stoic manner of hers. Rias was pacing up and down the room when he entered. The look on her face was torn between worry and anger. Akeno herself seemed to be the only one completely calm, even if it was forced to keep the others from completely freaking out.

Asia was in the corner of the room, on her knees and praying. She was separated from the rest of the peerage, but it seemed as if she was both calmer and more worried at the same time. Shirou had a feeling that she was praying for him, if only because he was the only person he could think of that would need a prayer. When Shirou entered the room proper, she looked up. When she saw that it was him she calmed down and seemed to relax.

"What the Hell were you THINKING!" Rias shouted, her voice cracking and her eyes watering.

"That the fallen angel had to die and that Asia needed to be saved." Shirou responded instantly, before cringing at revealing information that would only worry the others.

"I know that as a devil you would feel the need to kill fallen angels, but this is more than normal sempai." Kiba said, his voice curious.

"Did you know that Raynare was the one who killed Issei?" Akeno asked.

"No, but I feel even more justified in attacking her now." Shirou replied, causing Akeno to receive a glare from Rias.

"You could have died! That was reckless and dangerous! When I asked you to look out for Issei this wasn't what I meant!" Rias shouted. "You should have called for me. It's my job to make sure your all safe." Rias' voice grew quiet as her shoulders began shaking.

"Rias, look at me." Shirou said firmly, causing Rias to raise her eyes to meet the taller devil's gaze. "I choose to fight. I wanted to save Issei and Asia. I hope you understand that." Asia looked shocked that the devil's want to protect her, even though she was an enemy.

"But you could have died." Rias said, her voice barely a whisper.

"Then I would have died saving Issei and Asia, bringing two innocents to safety." Shirou said, earning shocked looks from the gathered devils.

"Sempai, why aren't you concerned about your own safety?" Kiba asked, his voice sad.

"Perhaps I should have told you more about myself when we meet." Shirou began, going to sit on the desk at the front of the room. "I wasn't a normal human, or even a normal magus. I had a, well the best way to put it would be a distortion. This distortion made it impossible for me to value my own life against the lives of others. Combine that with my need to save people, and I began to save everyone but myself."

"I didn't know you were so heroic Shirou." Issei said, clearly starstruck. Everyone gave Shirou an odd look when he chuckled.

"I am no hero. I was selfish. I saved people for my own satisfaction. That was until that day. It's complicated, but basically the woman I loved with all my heart became dangerous to those around her. So I had to choose, follow my dream to the end and kill her to save everyone else; or abandon my dreams to save the one I loved more than anything."

The gathered devils, and single nun, were spellbound by the story that Shirou was telling. The emotion of his voice making several of them break into tears. Even the stoic Koneko was tearing up from the tale Shirou laid out in front of them. Akeno's voice broke the silence,

"So what did you pick?"

"I gave up my dream and everything that defined me to save the woman I loved. But it wasn't to be. I broke a cardinal law that endangered the entirety of humanity. Because of that, the Counter Guardians were summoned. They are basically humans of legend that made a contract with Alaya, the spirit of humanity, that were summoned across time and space to save it. I fought as hard as I could, but I never even killed a single Counter Guardian. They destroyed everything within ten kilometres of me before managing to end my life last."

"Eventually, fighting against ten Counter Guardians, I died. I died regretting that I never save _her_, but I thought it was the end. Then Zelretch came and did me a 'favour'. He grabbed my body and flung it across time and space to a place where I could be given a second life. But a second life wasn't something I wanted or believed I deserved. So I just served my new master as best I could, because I had no purpose."

Most of the gathered people were now openly crying, the tragic tale moving them to tears. Shirou himself was looking off into the distance. Nobody spoke for several minutes, until Shirou continued speaking, "That doesn't really explain it though. It was because of how the woman I loved was treated. Every day she was humiliated by her grandfather, forced to allow insect familiars to enter her body for her family magecraft. Then her grandfather forced her brother to rape her every single day, often several times a day."

The room was completely quiet for several minutes. The listeners had no way to comfortably comment and Shirou was trying to contain both his tears and his rage. Shirou looked up at Rias, and he saw watery eyes looking back at him.

"That is why I attacked the fallen angel, I can't bear to leave another person to suffer like she did." Shirou explained, his voice quiet. The room was quiet until Issei suddenly stood up.

"I don't understand, but if you need to beat up Freed to find peace, let me help!" Issei said, before prostrating himself in front of Shirou. Everyone looked rather shocked, but Shirou just gave Issei a sad smile.

"I couldn't risk your life for my own vengeance, especially if Asia is already safe." Shirou said, "I can handle Freed on my own."

"Don't be reckless. Remember their are still four fallen angels." Akeno chided.

"Well, I actually killed Raynare, so now it's three." Shirou said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"What." Rias deadpanned, "Are you saying that you, a newly reincarnated devil, killed a fallen angel?"

"Um. Yes?" Shirou said. Rias gave a heavy sight and facepalmed.

"Buchou, he is a mutation piece." Akeno reminded Rias, who was pinching her nose in frustration.

"A what now?" Shirou asked.

"Not all evil pieces are created equally." Rias began, her voice analytically and mechanical., "some are weaker than others. A mutation piece is so much stronger that it can bring back people who are valued as a queen with a single pawn."

"What does that mean for me?" Shirou asked.

"I don't really know. Mutation pieces aren't really that well understood." Rias sighed. "If anything, I would guess that it will give you a more powerful increase to your speed as a knight. I doubt that it does anything that isn't a passive increase."

"Interesting. In any case, I know where Freed is most likely to be." Shirou said, heading for the door. "So unless there is an emergency, don't call for me."

Shirou was out of the room when he heard Rias shout after him, "Don't go to fight him at the church! You'll get killed!" Shirou just turned back towards the open doors and gave an apologetic smile to his master. Before Rias or anyone else could say anything else, Shirou blurred from his location.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Shirou was currently at the edge of the holy grounds surrounding the church. Even if he was only a handful of metres from the entrance of the building, Shirou was hesitant to walk onto holy ground. Perhaps this was his new devil instincts, but he didn't feel comfortable walking into this church. Then again, after meeting Kirei Kotomine, churches may just always seem much more intimidating then they truly are.

Shirou finally gave up trying to draw Freed out of the church and entered the church proper. The holy symbols that devoted this church to the Christian God were completely destroyed, further cementing Shirou's opinion that this was the place the fallen angels were hiding. Shirou was at the entrance, while he saw Freed sitting on the altar at the front of the room.

"Hey, it's you, shitty devil. I heard you killed that hot fallen angel. Shame, and she promised me some hot sex for my work." Freed said, a wide grin on his face.

"Disgusting." Shirou said, tracing Bakuya and Kanshou into his waiting hands. Freed's smile only became wider. This was how the fight began. Shirou dashed in front of Freed with his knight speed. Freed anticipated this and was already firing light bullets at Shirou. Shirou used the flat of Kanshou to block the bullets and slashed out with the white blade.

Freed back stepped and brought his light sword, well it was more of a straight cavalry sabre, up to intercept Shirou's slash with the black blade. Freed forced Shirou to back off with another burst of bullets from his pistol. Shirou threw his black blade in response, before tracing another Kanshou to fill the empty hand. The moment that Freed parried the sword to the side the traced sword exploded.

Shirou released his hold on Archer's spirit and switched to the spirit of the twin swords. Unlike the less limited spirit, Kanshou Bakuya required that an even number of identical or mirrored items to be used. Thankfully, while the blades Kanshou and Bakuya had different colour schemes, the spirit only used the size and shape of items. As soon as Shirou wielded both of the blades, his resistances increase by the enchantment on the blade.

Freed fired his pistol faster than a normal human could follow. However, Shirou was significantly faster than a normal human, and as such managed to take several steps to the right to avoid the attack. Unlike with the stray devil, these attack were anti-devil. No matter the resistance a devil had, these bullets would still cause damage.

Freed clinked his tongue in frustration and charged at Shirou with a thrust aimed at his neck. Shirou managed to sidestep the attack and retaliated with a dual swing. Freed managed to use his pistol like a tonfa and hold off the blades. The blades were slowly forcing their way threw the holy handgun when Freed slashed at Shirou's face. Shirou leaned back and pulled his swords out of the pistol.

Shirou disengaged and forced Freed away with a thrown Bakuya. Shirou spun on his heel to add speed to his follow up throw of Kanshou. Moments after Kanshou left his hands, Shirou had already traced another pair and extended the spirit to cover them as well. Freed managed to make a last minute jump to avoid second flying blade.

Shirou was in front of Freed just as his feet landed from his short hop. Shirou swung at Freed's neck with Kanshou as Bakuya held the light sword to the side. Unlike the last couple of engagements, it was Freed who was forced back. Freed jumped straight backwards, narrowly avoiding having his neck sliced. Freed brought forth his gun and was about to shoot at Shirou.

Only to be stabbed from behind.

The doors of the church opened again as Shirou walked to a downed Freed. Freed had another Kanshou and Bakuya piercing his upper legs from behind. Shirou release the copy of Bakuya and Kanshou he held and allowed them to return to prana. In there place was a single two hand claymore. The guard on a claymore was normally swept forwards, but this particular claymore had it's guard broken off halfway to the end.

Before the blade could remove Freed's head from his shoulders, a blast of magic alerted him to the source of a second danger. Another fallen angel had burst out of the alter, revealing a hidden staircase hidden behind it. A light spear left it's hand, but not headed towards Shirou. Shirou's eyes widened as he reinforced his knight speed to incredibly dangerous levels.

Shirou's body moved faster than most land based machines could, cutting the distance between himself and target of the attack in the blink of an eye. His Claymore came up and slashed the spear into two pieces as Shirou felt his legs break. The spear disintegrated into motes of lights before it could harm Shirou or the one he protected.

Shirou grunted as he felt Avalon come into effect for the second time that day. His bones had suffered a clean break, so Avalon had a, relatively, easy time healing that damage. It was the sheared tendons and ruptured blood vessels that would pose a threat to his fighting ability. Thankfully his enemies were in no position to attack him.

Freed was still on his knees, his legs not able to carry his weight anymore. His arms weren't truly damaged, but rather limp as Freed began falling into shock. The blood he was losing wasn't helping matters. The other opponent was a male fallen angel with slack arms at seeing the newly reincarnated devil travel at such speeds.

Behind Shirou, a female gasp of shock was heard. Asia had fallen backwards during the encounter and was staring up at Shirou in shock. On her hands, Twilight Healing was already summoned, perhaps prepared to heal someone before she had fallen under attack.

**End**


	6. Chapter 6

Spirit Sword

Chapter 6:

_I own nothing beyond this crazy idea and the laptop I write it on._

**Author's Note: I don't have a beta or a lot of time to go over this after I write it. However I believe that it's best to release this chapter instead of sitting on it for a long time trying to make it perfect. On that note, if I find a lot of errors in this chapter before I finish the next one, I will most likely come back and edit this chapter, like I did for chapter 1.**

**People complained about the scene that Shirou explained his history in and I happen to agree that it was rather heavy handed of me. However I could see no other way for me to reach that conclusion and kept in because I felt it was worth keeping so that the plot can advance. I did get a lot of constructive reviews and tried to incorporate them in my writing.**

**If you review, feel free to complain about what ever you want, but please be ready to offer advice when I eventually pm you. **

* * *

Asia was shaking as she stared at the back of Shirou. He was in front of her with a massive sword, protecting her even now. Asia felt something inside of Shirou shift, before he was covered in a flash of holy energy. Asia screamed as her protector was attacked by the angel once again. However, instead of fallen to the ground, reduced to a pile of ashed, Shirou was still standing.

The aura that surrounded him was healing him, regenerating the wounds that he had gathered over the fight with Freed. Asia gasped as she realized what was happening. This was the divine protection given to angels by God! Was Shirou a divine guardian that fell into the lines with devils? Why was God giving this devil his protection that should only belong to angels?

Shirou knew nothing of what Asia was thinking, or the impression that Avalon was leaving upon those who saw it heal him. However, Shirou was squared off with the fallen angel, once more calling for the spirit of Gae Bolg to the surface of his reality marble, ready for use whenever Shirou activated it. Shirou's circuits were relatively stable and calm, but Shirou had to make sure not to 'overclock' his spirits into overpressure.

The fallen angel had his eyes narrowed at the devil in front of him. He created a light sword and a light spear. The spear was sent flying at Shirou, with the fallen angel on it's tail. Shirou released his broken claymore and projected a barbed red spear that stunk of death, Gae Bolg and a black dao with a hexagon pattern, Kanshou. The angel aborted it's charge as it recognized the demon spear.

"Gae Bolg! But it was destroyed, by what evil is this!" The fallen angel shouted, staying a fair distance from the devil. Shirou didn't answer as he destroyed the spear of light that would have injured him. At this point, Shirou needed a couple more moments to fully recover his legs. The fallen angel snarled at Shirou and flung spear after spear at Shirou. The black blade of Kanshou intercepted each and every spear thrown at Shirou.

Freed remained on the ground where he slowly bleed out from the two wounds on his legs. Shirou's momentary lapse in concentration was all it took for a light spear to impact into his sword arm. Shirou grunted as he activated Avalon's more rapid healing method by channelling prana directly into the artifact. The sheath stored in Shirou's body 'sung' it's otherworldly melody as it began to heal him.

The fallen angel didn't stop attacking merely because he manage to land a strike. While Shirou's arm was healed, it wasn't in position to defend against the onslaught of spears. In response, Shirou spun Gae Bolg in his left hand and used it to redirect the spears to each side of him. While it was effective, Shirou's lack of mobility cut into it's offensive follow up.

Asia, shaking in fear behind Shirou, was afraid of the new weapon. While Asia wasn't a real exorcist, even she knew the legend of Gae Bolg. It was a weapon so fearsome that in the war between angels, fallen angels and devils, God himself destroyed the spear. Nothing less could stop the weapon that always pierced the heart.

Of course the wielders of the spear died a hundred times over, but another devil would always retrieve it before the other factions could deploy one of their most powerful soldiers to fully destroy it. In the end, the losses of the angel faction forced God to destroy the weapon, lest it destroy all of his angels. To see it again could only mean that God had failed.

Eventually, when Shirou's legs were completely healed, he still couldn't move for fear of having Asia killed in the crossfire. Between Shirou's use of Cu Chulainn's single hand spear skills and his own unique style of sword combat, he forced the battle to a standstill. The fallen angel couldn't truly harm him without entering melee combat, but the moment that he did, Shirou would activate Gae Bolg.

The conflict was forced when the door burst off it's hinges. Shirou didn't look at who had entered, but he knew it was one of his fellow devils. Once Shirou had a chance to fully analyze the magical signals the person that showed up, he grinned. Issei was beside Asia, having already summoned his sacred gear.

"Issei, take Asia and move!" Shirou commanded, jumping forward. The light spears were dodged deftly as Shirou charged at the fallen angel. Issei followed the command, grabbing Asia in a bridal carry and jumping away from the area they had been pinned at. All of a sudden, Issei felt an explosion of bloodlust and evil.

The doorway was filled once again, as the rest of the peerage finished placing a barrier. Rias and Akeno had solemn faces, while Kiba was equal parts concerned and curious. Koneko, as always, had no expression on her face. What they saw when they entered the church would remain with them for the rest of their lives.

Shirou was in front of a flying fallen angel, at the apex of his jump. In his left hand, a barbed red spear was pointing above the fallen angel's head. The blood lust was intoxicating for the devils, as Shirou burst magical energy from his body. Rias' eyes widened as she recognized the spear in Shirou's grip. Even if she didn't, what Shirou declared next would have given it away.

"Gae, BOLG!" Shirou's voice was cold as it commanded the entire universe to rewrite itself. The spear that used to be above the fallen angel's head suddenly bent downwards and pierce the heart of the fallen angel. Almost no blood was released as the spear was removed from the dieing fallen angel.

Shirou landed softly, and dismissed his two weapons. The weapons dispersed in a shower of light, returning to the prana that formed them. Shirou looked towards Issei, and upon seeing Asia was okay, released a sigh. He then walked towards the downed Freed. His mind was blank, no weapons ready to trace, no spirit ready to call. Before Shirou get to the downed Freed, another fallen angel burst out of the stairwell and grabbed Freed.

The second fallen angel was a petite woman, or perhaps a little girl. Like all fallen angels, she had black feathered wings. In her hand was a single black orb. Once she had Freed, the fallen angel threw the orb to the ground and allowed it to release a blast of light. When Shirou regained his vision, the fallen angel had escaped with Freed. The church rumbled as a light streamed in from the basement.

Rias' eyes widened as she realized what the fallen angels had done. "Run! It's going to explode!" True to her words, the basement exploded in a stream of light that was lethal to even human, even more so to devils who were weaker to the substance. The members of the peerage near to the door managed to escape relatively unharmed, but Asia and Issei would not be fast enough to make it out of the church before the explosion happened.

"Trace ON!" Shirou reached into his soul and activated the additional 27 magic circuits that he inherited from Archer's soul. While being reincarnated with them made these magical circuits perfectly in tune with Shirou's natural circuits, Shirou preferred not to use them due to his lack of experience with that much prana. With a total of fifty four magic circuits, Shirou was making more prana that any of his magecraft could safely use. In fact, only one magic item he had could use all of the prana he was producing.

Issei shielded Asia with his own body, his back facing the stairs that the light of originating from. Asia had tears in her eyes as she realized that her new friend was going to die. No devil could survive this attack. Asia had helped prepare the ritual that produced this energy. Normally it would syphon off the soul to power other rituals, but it had the ability to release the built up energy instantly. It wasn't naturally dangerous because a human soul wasn't very powerful, but even a low ranking fallen angel could produce enough energy to kill an entire army.

Of course, destroying a soul completely would produce much more incredible volumes of energy. If a fallen angel was killed and placed into the ritual before the soul could begin dieing, the soul would be converted into pure light energy lethal to even low ranking angels. Asia closed her eyes as the energy reach a peak.

Instead of the two instantly dieing, a voice was heard behind Issei, "Avalon!" Shirou's deep voice cried out as it activated the true use of Avalon, as the most powerful defensive noble phantasm. Shirou was surrounded by a golden light as his body was shielding by Avalon, the Everdistant Utopia. The land of the fairies surrounded Shirou, transporting his body to the Utopia that Arthuria had always dreamed of.

The light of the blast attempted to burn away Shirou through the bounded field, but it couldn't reach him. Avalon did not block attacks, nor did it reflect damage. The Everdistant Utopia completely isolated the user in the world of fairies, where even the true magics, or Gods couldn't reach him. The light attempted to travel through the endless void between the real world and Avalon. It failed to even reach Shirou, meaning that it didn't manage to consume the people behind Shirou.

Outside, the members that escaped looked on the church being completely consumed by light in dread. To Devils, who were beings of darkness, such light felt like death and pure destruction. Beyond their primal instinct's, Issei and Shirou didn't manage to escape from the blast. Rias had tears streaming out of her eyes. She fell to her knees as her two newest brothers were consumed by the light, never to see the dark of night again.

Akeno managed to maintain a more even disposition, but even she was depressed by the loss of the two energetic devils. While she wasn't as attached to the newest members of the peerage, she still was sad for their demise. Koneko managed to maintain a more composed face than the other two females, but within, she felt a deep sorrow that more of her friends were killed. She had already lost her sister before. Koneko shook her head to force her mind from those painful memories.

Kiba was angry. Unlike the girls, he already had a deep hatred for the church, and he just saw his best friend die to an attack by the fallen angels. Kiba was quivering as he saw the blast overtake Issei and Asia, Shirou already consumed by the blast. Shirou had been his closest thing to a brother, having magic similar to Sword Birth. Sword Birth was Kiba's sacred gear, it granted him the ability to make infinite demonic sword with whatever abilities he could imagine.

Sword Birth reacted to the great rage that Kiba felt, creating a new sword from his emotions. The sacred gear reached out and pulled in the remnants of Gae Bolg to create a new sword. Kiba could feel his body straining to create the sword with Sword Birth, but rather than rebuke the still forming blade, Kiba poured his rage and hatred into the blade, giving it shape. The blade formed in Kiba's hand, but not even noticed by anyone.

Suddenly, Asia gasped for air. The normally quiet sound was heard in the silence left behind by the explosion. A coughing was heard from the same direction, but with a male source. Before the peerage could move it and see who had survive, the roof of the building collapsed. Before the roof could crush whoever was still alive, another explosion rang out and the roof was launched away from the church. The sword in Kiba's hand disappeared as he rushed towards the church.

When the peerage managed to make it inside, what they found left them mystified. Asia was on the ground, healing Issei from what appeared to be a series of burns on the left side of his body. Shirou was standing off to the side, looking upon the healing. Shirou was in perfect condition, the floor underneath him was fine, the ground behind him was in good condition.

"H-how?" Rias stuttered, seeing Shirou's condition. The confusion was understandable, as no devil could have stopped the blast, well not without being ultimate level or higher, which Shirou most definitely wasn't. Shirou looked over and felt his eyes widen as he saw the worry and pain he put them through.

"I will explain it to you all at the club house." Shirou placated, "It's not something I want anyone else to hear."

* * *

The walk back to the club house was weird. Everyone was happy that Shirou had saved Issei and Asia, but were much more confused about how he could have stopped that attack. Rias managed to recollect herself, but her eyes were puffy. Asia was able to walk, but was clearly absent minded during the walk back. Akeno was mostly compose, with a touch of curiosity. Koneko didn't let any of her emotions show, but was happy, or at least relieved.

What worried Shirou the most was the awe in Issei's eyes when Issei looked at him. It would seem that saving Issei caused him to feel indebted to Shirou for saving his life. While Shirou could understand the emotion, it still unnerved him that he was received this borderline worship for doing nothing, in his mind, abnormal. Of course, Shirou knew he was distorted. At least thats what Rin had told him.

When the devil peerage, plus nun, arrived at the club house, it was just after ten in the evening. The room was nearly identical to how Shirou left it. The various members of the peerage spread out along the two couches and Rias herself sat at the desk. Shirou remained standing at the centre of the room and waited for Rias to gather her thoughts.

"I'm glad your alright." Rias said, a small smile on her face.

"Thank you, I am glad I could return to you guys." Shirou said.

"I have to ask you a couple questions, because I can't have you being a danger to yourself again. I don't want to l-lose you." Rias said, her voice cracking.

"I understand, ask what ever you need to," Shirou replied.

"How did you survive the blast?" Rias asked bluntly.

"I used Avalon to isolate myself from the blast." Shirou answered, his voice even and steady. Rias showed no reaction to the name, but Kiba's breath hitched and he stood up straight.

"Kiba? Do you know what 'Avalon' is?" Rias asked, startled by the reaction.

"Avalon, the mystical sheath of Excalibur. There are legends of it's existence, but even the church isn't aware if it truly exist or what being the sheath of the legendary blade did to it." Kiba said, his voice cold and measured.

Before Kiba could continue talking, Shirou took over the explanation. "The sheath is a holy artifact that connects this world to the world of the fae, or fairies. It allows high speed regeneration and complete isolation to the proper owner of the sheath. And yes it is, in fact, the legendary sheath of King Arthur that has held Excalibur in the past."

Asia spoke in the silence that followed. "You are King Arthur." Kiba reacted as if he was struck when he heard those words. The previously shocked Issei fainted. Akeno managed to hide her surprise by hiding her mouth behind her hand. Koneko, as always, was stoic.

"What? No! NO! I am not the King of Knights. What happened was that I was dieing as a child and had Avalon placed within me." Shirou explained, his voice frantic. Shirou took a calming breath and continued speaking. "Because it still had energy it repaired the damage, but altered me to be able to use it correctly. Over the decade and a half it's been with me, I have perfected the use of it's abilities."

"So you survived because of a blessed item? That's odd." Akeno said, a frown on her face.

"Avalon isn't powered by divinity, but rather the Everdistant Utopia that the King wished for and dreamed of. More accurately it is a fae item that happens to be holy." Shirou explained, before noticing a foul look on Kiba's face. Before Shirou could ask Kiba why, Rias continued her questions.

"What about Gae Bolg? It was destroyed in the great war, yet you obviously used it." Rias asked, causing Asia to look up curiously.

"What's Gae Bolg?" Kiba asked.

"A demon spear that was one of the most powerful of it's kind." Akeno replied for Rias, before turning to Shirou.

"Remember how I told you how my magic can let me create copies of any weapon I see? Well I have seen Gae Bolg in the past and can use my magecraft to trace it." Shirou explained, earning a disbelieving stare from Rias and Akeno. "What?"

"Are you saying that you can create a functional copy of the most powerful demonic spear in history with what, in your own words, amounts to incomplete magic?" Rias asked.

"Well when you put it that way I guess it does sound horribly powerful. Or dangerous." Shirou replied sheepishly. Kiba lost the look on his face at this point, but whether it was do to him finding peace or because he managed to school his features was beyond Shirou's ability to discern.

Rias was contemplating the information that Shirou had provided. It was obvious why Shirou used a mutation knight piece to be reincarnated. Even if a normal knight piece could be used, it was better to use a mutation piece due to the high amount of growth Shirou could have with that magecraft. Even more pressing was the implications of this new information.

Avalon, the mystical sheath of King Arthur wasn't made by God. Shirou probably didn't say it outright because of Asia and her belief in God. Considering this, it wasn't that surprising that God's forces didn't use Avalon during the great war. However, because of Kiba's history with the holy swords, it was possible that Kiba's relationship with Shirou would take a turn for the worst. That would certainly cause a headache if her two knights were at each others throat.

"Shirou, what affect does Avalon have on your abilities as a devil?" Akeno asked, worried about the implications.

"None that I have managed to notice." Shirou began, "All my human skills remained useful to me and my body is more powerful than when I was human. The only thing that might make me different from a normal huma-, erm devil, would be a possible ability to wield Excalibur."

The reaction between the gathered people was varied. Kiba was upset, for some reason beyond Shirou's knowledge. Akeno was surprised, yet noticeably excited. Koneko was surprised, and let that surprise show on her face. Asia was in awe of the devil that could, probably, wield Excalibur. Rias was proud, but worried about the reactions of other devils. Issei was still unconscious.

"Look, it's late and many of us are tired. We will speak more about this tomorrow. For now we should all get some rest." Rias recommended, to which no one argued. Everyone except Kiba and Shirou left the room, with Rias herself carrying Issei.

Shirou motioned for Kiba to stay. Kiba was conflicted for some reason, and Shirou was curious, but willing to allow Kiba the time he needed. It was a couple of moments before Kiba sat on the couch and poured himself a cup of tea. After taking a deep drink, Kiba spoke.

"I have a bad experience with holy swords." Kiba began, while Shirou sat beside Kiba. "I was part of an e-experiment, no, it was more of a cruel imprisonment, ran by the church." Kiba's voice was low and cold.

"Kiba, if you can't talk about it I understand." Shirou said, placing his arm around Kiba's shoulders. "Take your time." Kiba took a shaky breath and wiped away the tears forming in his eyes.

"It was designed to create users for those _abominations_." Kiba hissed, rage flashing through his body. "In the name of that despicable _God _we were given injections and were dissected to create artificial users."

"I understand Kiba, I really do." Shirou said, and he was honest. He remembered being a single piece in _Zouken's _plots for the holy grail. "I know you must hate me for carrying such a sheath in my body."

"I don't want to hate you though." Kiba said, his voice quiet. "You are probably my best friend and it hurts to hate you."

"But you can't forgive the church or the holy swords for what they did to you." Shirou continued.

"Not only what they did to me, but what they did to all those other children." Kiba said, his shoulders shaking. "Once the decided that we had no potential for the treatment, they killed us. It was gas, similar to what the Nazis used on the Jewish people. I only survived because everyone, because everyone-"

Shirou patted Kiba's shoulder as Kiba's tears ran freely. After several moments of silence, Kiba gathered himself so that he could continue talking. "They sacrificed themselves so that I could escape."

"And you feel guilty that they died while you survived." Shirou finished. Kiba looked up in shock at Shirou, a question clearly written on his face. "Yeah, I felt the same way about surviving too. Still do really."

"How do you live, not let it rule you?" Kiba asked.

"Honestly? I have no idea, but like I said, I am distorted. It's not a cure but I will probably always be like this. I wouldn't wish for you to be distorted like I am." Shirou said, hugging Kiba to his shoulder. "I would recommend letting out your tears for now."

Shirou eventually left an hour later, Kiba carried in his arms. Kiba had spent the last hour silently crying for his dear friends that died on that day, letting his sorrow out. Shirou had spent that time hugging Kiba and comforting him. While Shirou wasn't the best at giving comfort, it was the least he could do for Kiba. Shirou suddenly stopped in the middle of the street when he remembered that he didn't know where Kiba was staying.

* * *

Kiba woke up the next day in a comfortable, yet unfamiliar futon. His nose was treated to the scent of a traditional eastern breakfast cooking nearby. Kiba slowly opened his eyes to stare at the plain white ceiling. He saw a clock at the wall and forced himself to get up. He was still wearing his uniform from the previous night, but saw a replacement on the floor near the door.

Kiba got changed and walked out of the room. Last night had been tiring, but Shirou had been right, it felt better to get his trouble off his chest. Kiba smiled softly as he remembered Shirou helping him through his sorrow last night. Shirou really was a nice person, to do that for him. When Kiba managed to find the kitchen, which was only down a short hallway, he wasn't surprised to find Shirou cooking again.

Kiba offered to help, but Shirou quickly forced him out into the living room, insisting the he did the cooking. The living room had a typical Japanese table with pillows for people to sit on. Kiba was sitting barely a minute before Shirou came back out to serve breakfast. Kiba was surprised to taste the quality of the miso soup and grilled fish.

Breakfast went by quickly, with Kiba and Shirou mostly focused on eating the food before it became cold. Shirou finished eating first and cleared both of their dishes. Shirou came back into the living area almost immediately, far faster than it would take to even rinse the dishes. Kiba was going to ask, before noticing the time.

"I have to go Shirou, I'll see you after school." Kiba said, earning a quiet 'goodbye' from Shirou, before he left the room in a quick jog. Shirou gave a soft smile, before releasing his hold on the traced table and pillows. Just the dishes a moment before, the table and pillows disappeared in a burst of yellow lights.

Shirou moved to the far wall of his living room, before placing his had on it and forcing a portion of the wall to open. The previous night, after Kiba and him had arrived, Shirou managed to finish the hidden alcove he had been making for him to practice magecraft. The area was originally just a couple of metres wide and long, created due to inefficient building planning.

Now, the room was much bigger, from the size of a small cubicle to a large bathroom. It was a basic principle of reality marbles that Shirou had applied to the bounded field. The fields was terribly inefficient, but was stable due to the large circles that turned atmospheric mana into prana to sustain the field. The room contained a physical desk and chair, with an empty bookshelf on the walls. The desk had a single notebook on it filled with notes about bounded fields, all information he had received from Archer.

Shirou reached into the desk and pulled out another notebook. This notebook was dedicated to his new reality marble. The first eight pages were already filled with the information he managed to discover about his new reality marble. Shirou continued to write down what he knew about his reality marble, then moving on to experiments and test to see and push the limits of his new reality marble.

Shirou hadn't made much progress when he had to leave for his Devil duties. However, now that he had a secure place to work and experiment, Shirou would be able to progress. As Shirou walked to the club house in a sedate pace, he considered the new aria he would have to use for invoking his reality marble.

Archer had told him that to achieve the aria for his reality marble, he had to create one that reflect his essence, who he was at the centre of his being. Not that such a thing was by any stretch of the imagination easy. Shirou had made no progress in the past week, and he doubted that the short stroll would help he restructure and recreate the aria that Archer used to invoke his reality marble.

Shirou was once again the first to arrive at the club house. Upon arriving, Shirou brewed some tea and waited for the rest of the peerage to arrive. Kiba was the next to arrive. Kiba sat beside Shirou and poured himself a cup of tea. There was a moment of silence between the two as Shirou took a sip of his tea, watching Kiba prepare his own.

"I haven't thanked you yet, but I really appreciate what you did for me last night." Kiba said, giving Shirou a small smile.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad that you are feeling better." Shirou said.

"Thank you Shirou." Kiba said. Before either could continue talking, Rias entered the room. Shirou looked up in surprise when he also saw Asia enter the room. While Shirou didn't know what Asia was planning to do with her future, coming back into a den of devils wasn't what he was expecting. Behind the two of them was Akeno, who was never far from Rias anyway.

"Asia? What are you doing here?" Shirou asked, a single eyebrow raised. For some reason Asia was blushing.

"Hi, um, I just came to, ah, thank you!" Asia stammered, before blessing Shirou. Of course, being a devil, Shirou was in quiet a lot of pain from being blessed in God's name. When Asia saw Shirou flinch, she immediately stopped, and began apologizing. "Sorry, that was too careless of me!"

Shirou sighed and patted Asia's head, "It's okay, don't beat yourself up like that. I was an honest mistake."

"But didn't I hurt you?"

"Yes, but you don't have to apologize. It's not fault that devils can't receive blessings." Shirou placated, before leading Asia to the couch. "Tea?" Upon receiving a shy nod, Shirou poured Asia a cup of tea and handed it to her.

"Why are you so nice? Devils are supposed to be evil." Asia asked, before her eyes widened, "Not that any of you are evil!"

"Calm down Asia, I'm not going to eat you or anything." Shirou replied. Asia wilted as she stopped talking. "Asia, I like helping people. To me, being nice is it's own reward." The doors opened again as Koneko walked into the room, not at all surprised by Asia's presence.

"Hello" Koneko said, her face completely blank. Behind Koneko, Issei was also entering the club house, but stopped short when he saw Asia.

"Asia? What are you doing here?" Issei asked, his voice a rather high pitch when compared to what it usually was. Asia tried to stammer out an answer, but Shirou answered before she could embarrass herself.

"She wanted to thank me for saving her last night." Issei gave a simple 'okay' before helping himself to a cup of tea. The peerage sat on the couches while Rias sat at her desk. Asia waited a moment before sitting down between Shirou and Issei. It was quiet for a moment as people began enjoy the tea Shirou prepared.

Rias was the first person to speak, "Tomorrow, I am planning on taking you guys out to get your familiar." While she was speaking, she motioned to Issei and Shirou.

"Whats a 'familiar'?" Came Issei's voice.

"A animal or beast that is bound to your life with magic to allow you to summon it to your side." Akeno explained.

Before Rias could continue talking, the door burst open with a large group of people, devils if Shirou's magic sense wasn't failing him, walking inside. Shirou instinctively burst into motion with a simple katana appearing into his had. Two devils before him had significantly more power then the rest, prompting Shirou to focus on them.

The first was short and petite and absolutely swimming of demonic energies. The person had short black hair and Violet eyes. The other was a taller and more filled out figure with long black hair and hetero-chromatic eyes, one brown, the other violet. Both figures were wearing glasses and the academy's female uniform. Shirou prepared to trace Bakuya and Kanshou, along with calling all of his spirits to the forefront of his mind.

"Shirou calm down, this is just Sona and her peerage." Rias called out, quite amused. Shirou allowed the sword in his hand to disappear in a shower of golden light and released his hold on Gae Bolg and Archer in his mind. Shirou slowly sat down on the couch, keeping an eye on this 'Sona's peerage.

'Sona' looked at Asia and rose an eyebrow at the nun, before turning back to Rias."Hello, I am here to inform you that I have recently added a new pawn to my peerage. Saji, introduce yourself." The short figure said. Behind her a tall guy with bright blond hair and grey eyes, but of a darker shade then Shirou's.

"Hey, I'm Genshirou Saji. Nice to meet you." Saji said, before taking in the appearance of the gathered devils. In particular, his eyes was drawn to the steel symbols branded into Shirou's hand. Saji managed to maintain tactful and simply gave a raised eyebrow to Shirou, whom promptly ignored it.

"Well I suppose I must return the favour, Sona." Rias replied, before calling 'Sona's attention to Issei. "This is my new pawn Issei." Another dramatic wave of her arm to Shirou, "and this is my new knight, Shirou."

"Hey, it's a pleasure" Issei said, giving a small wave to the others. "I am Hyoudou Issei, but you can just call me Ise."

"Emiya Shirou." Shirou said, looking at the new pawn. "You can call me Shirou if you prefer."

Before Sona could leave, Rias called out to her. "Hey Sona, I'm taking my peerage to the familiar forest tomorrow. I trust you will be able to plan around that." Sona turned around and smiled at Rias, before adjusting her glasses.

"What a coincidence. I was planing on taking Saji out to the familiar forest myself." Sona said, her smile taunting.

"Well I'm sure there will be plenty of time for you to go next month." Rias replied, her face sporting a wide grin.

"Perhaps we should be fair about this." Shirou intervened. "Perhaps we can take Saji with us when we go tomorrow?" Apparently, that wasn't the right thing to say as Sona turned onto Shirou with an evil stare.

"Are you implying that I can't take care of my own peerage?" Sona asked, causing Shirou's eyes to widen as he realized what he had implied.

"No! Not at all, it's just more efficient then fighting!" Shirou scrambled to defuse the situation before it could get out of hand. Not that it was likely at this point.

"Rias, I can't let this insult to my leading ability go unpunished. I challenge you to a match, the victor shall be allowed to go to the Familiar forest this month." Sona called out, before she spun on her heels and walked out of the room, but not before giving Shirou another stare. The room was quiet for a couple minutes before Shirou broke the silence.

"Sorry, I should have been more polite." Shirou apologized.

"It would have turned into a contest eventually." Rias sighed. "Alright then, we just have to win!" At least Rias was taking this challenge lightheartedly and more like a sport. Shirou couldn't help but wonder what the match would be, for Rias not to worry about it.


End file.
